NEW YORK – “What happened?” is the ringside question that Devin Haney mockingly asked Ryan Garcia in the moments after Rolly Romero’s surprising unanimous decision victory over the Californian caused so many opportunities to drift away.
Victory in the high-profile Cinco de Mayo main event, a secondary WBA welterweight title, the early fall rematch with Haney.
“I couldn’t get anything going in training camp. I just felt weird,” Garcia said afterward. “It was one of those things. I couldn’t get progressive sharpness [in the ring]. Nothing clicked.”
The low-key Romero 17-2 (13 KOs) embraced the sport’s simple lessons, including the one he repeated in victory.
“Never hook with a hooker,” he said.
In the second round, when his younger former sparring partner sought to unleash one of the famed left hooks that paced Garcia to three knockdowns of Haney in a April 2024 majority decision victory later converted to a no-contest due to Garcia’s positive tests for the banned PED Ostarine, Romero let loose a hook of his own, slamming Garcia’s head and dropping him.
“He never threw another hook,” Romero said after winning by scores of 115-112, 115-112, 118-109. “The one time he opened up, I cracked him.”
While Haney chided Garcia for being off the PEDs, a reporter asked Garcia in the post-fight news conference if he should consider reverting to the alcohol-fueled, crazed behavior that preceded his Haney bout.
“Yeah, tequila helps you knock guys out, right?” Garcia cracked.
Humble in defeat, Garcia said his diminished showing at the oddly placed and tightly enclosed Times Square venue was tied to a “weird feeling” of not feeling effectively prepared.
After starting camp with Canelo Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso, Garcia had to depart when Reynoso remained allegiant to Alvarez for his preparation for Saturday’s undisputed super-middleweight title fight in Saudi Arabia, bringing Garcia to reunite with Derrick James.
Following a staged entrance in a Batman car, Garcia said he typically shuts out everything as the fight begins. But in this chain-linked, 300-seat ring area, he heard comments by champions Shakur Stevenson and Richardson Hitchins before getting decked by Romero.
“I had an extremely off night,” Garcia 24-2 said. “Mentally, I didn’t have the aggression to go for the kill. I’ve got a lot of stuff to figure out.”
Haney parted before the news conference to join Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh for the Alvarez bout, but, other than defeating Jose Ramirez, he couldn’t have been happy with his showing in a bout that featured limited punches (at the final bell, the stats read 503 combined punches which was the third lowest in CompuBox history until it was surpassed by Garcia-Romero with 490).
As Garcia promoter Oscar De La Hoya indicated the anticipated Garcia-Haney rematch is now on pause by saying it will happen “eventually,” Romero “has options,” according to one of his promoters, including seeking a bout with Haney after capturing the WBA secondary welterweight belt Friday.
“They can have a rematch,” Romero said of Garcia and Haney. “They already had it planned. Why am I going to get in the way of that? I don’t care what happens next. I only care about a nice vacation.”
Romero, however, said he felt he swept the scorecards, and understands how the victory strongly positions him for shots at welterweight champions Jaron “Boots” Ennis, Brian Norman Jnr and Mario Barrios Jnr.
The thing is, Norman has a fight scheduled, Barrios is being pointed toward a July 19 showdown with Manny Pacquiao and Friday winner and WBO 140lbs champion Teofimo Lopez wants Ennis.
“There are a lot of fights that can get made,” Romero said.
The best one, for now, should be his Las Vegas neighbor Haney 32-0, who has questions to answer following his tentative victory over the plodding former unified 140lbs champion Ramirez.
Lopez weighed in afterward, saying champions are revealed by how they fare after a loss, even though Haney’s was a no-contest.
“Do you come back and look impressive, or do you fight like Devin Haney did?” Lopez asked after defeating top-ranked contender Arnold Barboza Jnr by unanimous decision.
Romero stirred the pot, too, contrasting the importance of his victory on the historic card with Haney’s dull showing.
“Did he just run? I was trying to warm up for a fight [watching Haney-Ramirez]. You almost made me go to sleep,” said Romero.