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Mike Coppinger, ESPN
NEW YORK — Ryan Garcia weighed 143.2 pounds Friday, 3.2 pounds over the 140-pound limit for his fight against Devin Haney, and afterward didn’t attempt to lose the extraneous weight, sources told ESPN.
Instead, Garcia immediately asked to cut a deal for the fight to proceed Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, sources said, and there’s a signed agreement.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) will now forfeit upward of $600,000 of his purse to Haney, per sources, but will not have to step on the scale Saturday as is customary when fighters miss weight.
Garcia, 25, also won’t be eligible to win Haney’s WBC junior welterweight title. If Haney loses — he’s a -900 favorite, per ESPN BET — the title will become vacant.
At Thursday’s news conference, and throughout the lead-up to the bout, Haney said that Garcia would miss weight. Garcia’s December win over Oscar Duarte, an eighth-round KO, was contested at 143 pounds after it was originally scheduled to take place at 140.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) asked Garcia to pay him $500,000 per pound Thursday if he missed weight. A Golden Boy Promotions statement said Garcia will “honor the handshake made at the final press conference yesterday.”
The bout will be Haney’s second fight at 140 pounds. The former undisputed lightweight champion moved up to junior welterweight in December and shut out Regis Prograis to win the title.
Garcia’s social media posts, many of which spun conspiracy theories, have overshadowed a fight between two of the sport’s top stars and led to questions about how seriously Garcia trained for the bout in Dallas under the guidance of Derrick James.
“People have a hard time wrapping that around their head that a post takes 10 seconds,” Garcia told ESPN last week. ” … I never really recorded the videos. People are recording me. I just press post. I mean, people are kind of hilarious. They expect me to train 24/7, 365, but that’s impossible. I mean, it’s not impossible, but I definitely won’t do it. It’s just a balance, man.”