Ryan Garcia misses weight ahead of Devin Haney bout

The boxing world is thrown into a tailspin as the trash talk between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia just got real. Ryan Garcia has missed weight, coming in at 143.2 pounds ahead of tomorrow’s clash, meaning that it will no longer be a contest for the WBC Super Lightweight title, but instead a catchweight contest.

Last minute negotiations are underway as I write this, but one wrinkle in the plan comes straight out of the raw emotion of the past few weeks’ buildup to the fight.

At Thursday’s press conference, things got heated between the two fighters and Haney challenged Garcia with a bet that he would not make weight. Garcia agreed and the two shook hands on it. The wager? $500,000 for every pound that either boxer was over the limit. This would mean that Garcia now owes Haney, $1.5 million.

While the televised weigh ins are simply for the press and public, the official weigh in takes place in private hours earlier. While Haney was able to strip nude and make 140 pounds exactly, Garcia came in 3.2 pounds over the limit. Haney then criticised his rival, saying that he “was not taking the fight seriously.”

According to Golden Boy, Garcia will honor the wager that was made and pay Haney the $1.5 million. “Ryan has weighed-in over his contractual weight. He will honor the handshake made at the final press conference yesterday. We have a fight.” This information was later confirmed by Haney via X formerly known as Twitter, posting “Ryan honored the 500k per pound.”

One big issue with the fight is that now, win or lose, the WBC belt will stay firmly around Haney’s waist, with the governing body taking their title off the table. The fight will go ahead as a catchweight bout.