Ryan Garcia will still fight Devin Haney for the WBC junior welterweight championship in New York on Saturday night, despite being 3.2lbs overweight.
Garcia came in at 143.2lbs on Friday, after agreeing to pay Haney $500,000 for every pound over that he came in at during a Thursday press conference – meaning he has to pay out a huge $1.5million.
But a deal has been renegotiated and the show goes on – the two will still fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Golden Boy Boxing said in a statement Friday: ‘Ryan has weighed in over his contractual weight.
‘He will honor the handshake made at the final press conference yesterday. We have a fight.’
Ryan Garcia will still fight Devin Haney in New York despite failing to make weight
Garcia also tweeted on Friday: ‘I feel great despite how I look.’
It’s the latest dramatic instalment in a build up that has been marred by continuous erratic behavior by Garcia, mainly on social media.
It began in March, when Garcia claimed he was dead after having his ‘throat slit’. It has prompted calls for him to be pulled from the fight, and Friday’s weigh-in is just the latest obstacle that has been overcome ahead of Saturday night’s bout.
He got into a spat with an audience member at Thursday’s press conference after going on an expletive-laden rant with mothers and dogs and body parts all mentioned.
In recent days, Garcia has also proposed to Australian porn star Savannah Bond, has accused Haney of a hate crime while identifying himself as a woman, and was kicked out of a New York Mets game before he even threw out a planned first pitch.
Speaking to DailyMail.Com in an exclusive interview this week, Haney said he has lost respect for Garcia due to how he has handled himself leading up to their showdown.
‘I don’t look that deep into it,’ he said of Garcia’s behavior. ‘I let him do whatever he wants to do and just continue to focus on me.
‘Keep preparing, keep my blinders on, keep tunnel vision and let him do whatever he wants to do.
‘I don’t see it as an advantage or a disadvantage. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent for me, he’s just another person on my resume. And no matter what he does, it won’t change the outcome of the fight.
‘I don’t care for him whatsoever. He’s done a lot of things during this build-up and I’ve lost a lot of respect for him.’
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