Devin Haney hits the floor 3 times and suffers his first professional loss to Ryan Garcia

NEW YORK (AP) Ryan Garcia’s behavior before his fight with Devin Haney seemed so erratic that some believed he shouldn’t have been allowed to fight in any respect.

Think of a performance they’d miss.

Garcia knocked down Haney three times and handed the WBC super lightweight champion his first loss, winning the fight by majority decision on Saturday night but failing to win the title because he exceeded the weight limit.

Garcia’s strange actions in public and on social media throughout the build-up raised questions on how seriously he took the fight. It actually gave the look of he didn’t put in enough training time when he weighed greater than 3 kilos over the 140-pound limit on Friday.

However, the speed and power in his hands were an excessive amount of for Haney, who was injured in the first round and fell in seventh, tenth and eleventh.

“Come on guys, did you really think I was crazy?” Garcia shouted at fans during his post-fight ringside interview.

Garcia (25-1, 20 KO) won with scores of 115-109 and 114-110 on two judges’ cards, while the third one had a rating of 112-112.

The Associated Press scored it 114-110 for Garcia.

The 25-year-old from California had six fights as amateurs, but Haney had a greater professional profession, winning the undisputed lightweight title and then moving up to win the WBC belt in his first fight at 140 kilos.

Garcia couldn’t stand it, but he broke Haney’s perfect record. Haney dropped to 31-1.

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Haney seemingly took his place amongst the best players in the world, even though it was easy to wonder if Garcia had overdone it. Garcia was stopped by Gervonta Davis last yr in his biggest fight and was expected to go down again, although he insisted he was ready to fight despite seemingly spending more time on the Internet than in the gym.

Garcia explained that he needed evenings and time for other interests to help him cope with issues in his personal life, corresponding to his divorce.

“I did what I felt I needed to do to feel good,” Garcia said.

He was higher than OK. He was higher than considered one of the best players in the world.

He staggered Haney with an enormous left hook in the first round, and although Haney maintained his balance and appeared to be winning the middle rounds, Garcia’s strength reemerged in the seventh round.

“He caught me early when I was sleeping on him,” Haney said of the first-round hook. “He surprised me.”

A straight left caused the first knockdown, and Haney struggled to regain his balance for the remainder of the round. He went down twice more in the round, but neither was ruled a knockdown by the referee, who also deducted a degree in the round from Garcia for punching on the break.

Irrelevant. There was no denying that there have been knockdowns in the tenth and eleventh sets, and Garcia could have spent most of the twelfth round taunting the champion.

It was unclear from the starting how enthusiastic Garcia was about the fight, which he lobbied to happen in Las Vegas, even after it had already been announced in Brooklyn.

There was a non-title bout on Friday, with Garcia weighing in at 143.2 kilos, 3.2 kilos over the super lightweight limit. He didn’t seem concerned, posting on social media that the extra weight would make him stronger and then drinking what appeared to be a bottle of beer on the scale at the ceremonial public weigh-in later in the afternoon.

But he looked like a fast-rising sensation early in his profession, with the crowd chanting his name as he began to dominate in the final rounds.

Garcia said he would look to move up to 147 kilos, claiming he was unable to break the 140-pound limit.