Ryan Garcia suffers nightmare defeat by Rolly Romero to leave Devin Haney rematch in tatters

Ryan Garcia suffered a nightmare loss to Rolly Romero on Friday, potentially leaving his planned rematch with Devin Haney in tatters.

Garcia was dropped by Romero in round two and ultimately beaten on points, moments after Haney won a decision against Jose Ramirez in the very same ring in New York City.

After Haney’s victory, a triumph for Garcia would have set up a rematch of their 2024 clash, in which “King Ryan” dropped the “Dream” three times en route to a decision win, which was overturned upon the revelation that Garcia had failed a pre-fight drug test.

That news came after Garcia, 26, had missed weight and concerned fans with his pre-fight behaviour. The weight miss made Garcia ineligible to take the WBC super-lightweight belt from Haney, also 26.

In any case, both men made their welterweight debuts on Friday (2 May), with mixed results.

Haney won a wide decision against fellow former world champion Ramirez (119-109, 119-109, 118-110), yet he looked almost as gun-shy as the 32-year-old. Haney appeared hesitant for much of the bout, perhaps due to his disastrous evening against Garcia last time out, although he did grow into the fight with Ramirez.

Regardless, Haney did enough to secure the victory and stay unbeaten, which is more than can be said of Garcia, who suffered his second professional loss.

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Garcia, who was stopped by Gervonta “Tank” Davis in 2023, was floored by two quickfire left hooks in round two against Romero, who fought intelligently and with discipline over the remaining rounds. As such, the 29-year-old sealed scorecards of 115-112, 115-112 and 118-109.

“He fought a good fight, caught me early,” Garcia said. “No excuses, man. He did a great job, and that’s that. I just think that whole year [off] took a lot off my body physically, mentally.

“I’m just happy I made it to the ring and went 12 rounds. Hats off to Rolly, he did a great job. Just got to go to the drawing board with my team, we’ll talk it over and see what we do next.”

Earlier in the night, Teofimo Lopez outpointed Arnold Barboza Jr with ease to retain the WBO super-lightweight title.

Lopez, 27, handed Barboza Jr, 33, his first professional defeat with scorecards of 116-112, 116-112 and 118-110 – and the former two arguably flattered the challenger, who entered the bout as interim champion.