Add Ryan Garcia as the latest principal in pugilism who believes Vasiliy Lomachenko pulled off the upset win against undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney. 

During their high-level matchup on May 20, Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) was awarded scores of 116-112 by Dave Moretti, 115-113 by Tim Cheatham, and 115-113 by David Sutherland despite being outlanded 124 to 110 and being outworked in total punches, 564 to 405. 

The three-division champion Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) came on strong in the later rounds and arguably beat down Haney more definitively. There were several toss-up rounds sprinkled in between, and the three judges scored seven of the twelve rounds the same. 

Garcia saw the fight in person at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and he said that Lomachenko didn’t deserve to lose. 

“I messaged [Haney]. I said, ‘yo, bro. I thought Loma edged it out but try to look past the hate that you've been taking on and just look forward,” Garcia said on fitness influencer Bradley Martyn’s YouTube channel.

“I was there. I thought Loma edged it out. People say, ‘Oh, don't call it robbery.’ Okay, but when somebody deserved to win, that's still somewhat of a robbery, even if it's by one point or two points. [Lomachenko] probably should have won. To me, from what I saw up close, Loma landed the more effective shots. He was hitting him cleaner. Devin was just kind of posing a lot, like, you know, jab, but it wasn't really clear. I didn't see anything clear. But Loma’s mistake is running it up on Devin and just suddenly starting to back up. I think he's always fought that way though. I'm like, dude, you're already running it up. Devin doesn't have an answer for you at that moment. Maybe it's a conditioning thing. I don't know. I think part of [Haney] knows that it was really, really close. But I don’t want to take anything away from Devin.” 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.