However, this is boxing and anything can happen, so Garcia surprised everyone by knocking down Hnaey in the seventh, tenth, and eleventh rounds, and winning a shocking majority decision.
Garcia staggered Haney in the first and may have finished Haney off in the seventh after dropping him but two possible knockdowns weren't counted, Garcia was penalized a point for hitting on the break, and there was an added stop in the action when a cameraman entered the ring thinking the round was completed with a minute remaining.
The problem was that on my card if you take away the knockdown rounds and round one, round eight was the only other round that Garcia had a case for winning.
I thought Haney won seven of the twelve rounds, which is how I scored the fight 112-112 with the poor decision by referee Harvey Dock to dock (pun intended) the point in the seventh costing Garcia the fight on my card and one judges as well with the two majority cards going to Garcia 115-109 and 114-110.
Garcia was the faster fighter and landed his left hook consistently but his lack of conditioning cost him in the close rounds in my opinion to allow Haney to squeeze out a few rounds that Garcia might have grabbed in better shape.
Still, it was phenomenal for Garcia to fight so well under the circumstances, and credit him for winning the fight.
However, he did miss weight by over three pounds, pounds that Haney made, and now I would have questions about Garcia making weight for any signed fight, let alone one for a championship since he isn't sorrowful about missing weight, he's reveling in his achievement and now will have no incentive to try in the future.
The fight reminded me of the Jose Luis Castillo-Diego Corrales rematch of arguably the greatest fight ever where Castillo badly missed weight, Corrales made the weight and took a piece of Castillo's purse before the much stronger Castillo, who didn't weaken himself to hit the scale, knocked Corrales out in four.
In the case of Castillo-Corrales II and Garcia-Haney, there will always be an asterisk around those wins despite excellent performances as the question that will forever be unanswered is this- Could they have fought so well had they made weight or at least been forced to try?
Some are complaining about the WBC decision to allow Haney to keep his title despite the defeat.
I'm not.
Garcia missed weight, Haney made it, and then it was agreed to allow the fight to take place as a welterweight match-up, that makes it a non-title fight and the result should have nothing to do with Haney keeping his title, he lost over the weight, that's why there are weight classes, and should he wish to fight at 140 pounds (Garcia announced plans to move to 147 pounds), it's reasonable to see Haney remain as champion.
Garcia didn't seem interested in a rematch with Haney or the man who defeated him in Gervonta Davis and even at 147, I don't see much for him in big fights with Terence Crawford moving to 154 pounds and not wanting any part of the IBF champion Jaron "Boots" Ennis.
Garcia may wait for more of the stars at 140 pounds to move to 147 and he can make lots of money against lesser contenders as he waits for the big fight.
Haney will need to re-establish himself after the loss and his marketability may have taken a hit after the loss but I'm not sure that's fair.
We ask our stars not to be boring (as in Shakur Stevenson), and yet when they abandon their best style to be more entertaining as Haney did and make a better fight with a loss, we shuffle them aside.
Boxing fans and writers often want things both ways and in the case of Devin Haney, I'm not sure that's fair quite yet.
I was away on the weekend on a trip (I'll be writing about it in the coming days), so I haven't seen the complete undercard.
I have seen the best fight on the undercard with David Jimenez upsetting John "Scrappy Ramirez for a minor junior bantamweight title by unanimous decision of 117-11 x2 and 116-112.
I picked Ramirez even though I liked Jimenez's chances because Ramirez was better connected and I thought that may make the difference in a close fight.
Glad the judges got the right result as Jimenez's only loss was controversial in losing a decision to then-WBA flyweight champion Artem Dalakian.
I also watched Sergey Dereyvanchenko's unanimous win over durable trialhorse Vaughn Alexander in a super middleweight ten-rounder.
Dereyvanchenko floored Alexander in the eighth round for the fights only knockdown with a body shot.
Talented junior middleweight Charles Conwell dominated veteran Nathaniel Gallimore in his return to the ring after a long absence.
Conwell won every round before the referee ended the fight in round six, which was an excellent decision on his part.
Conwell is the mandatory contender in the WBC ratings and will be a tough out for whoever has to take him on.
I have not seen the co-feature but many are howling about the split decision that was given to 140-pound contender Arnold Barboza over Great Britain's Sean McComb.
Barboza's scores were 97-93 and 96-94 with the more popular score for McComb at 98-92.
Boxing Challenge
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