Romero drops Garcia, wins unanimous decision in major upset
Claims WBA "regular" 147 title in Times Square after Haney outpoints Ramirez in dreadful affair that leaves planned Haney-Garcia II in limbo
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The setting was inventive and picturesque for a boxing card — the first one to be staged outdoors in Times Square in New York. But it was all downhill from there.
With Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney both coming off a year layoff since their controversial no contest and moving up to welterweight to face reputable but underdog opponents, the idea was that they would both win in style and move on to a heavily anticipated rematch that was already a done deal for the fall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, pending victories.
But both fighters dramatically devalued themselves with pitiful performances on The Ring magazine “Fatal Fury” DAZN PPV card on Friday night.
Rolando Romero, who was also moving up in weight, dropped Garcia hard in the second round and won a unanimous decision over a seemingly disinterested Garcia in a tremendous upset as he won the vacant WBA “regular” welterweight title in the main event.
“Rolly fought a good fight. He caught me early, no excuses,” Garcia said. “Congrats to him. He did a great job and that's that.”
The bout followed Haney’s dreadful performance in a lopsided unanimous decision win over Jose Ramirez, who did even less than Haney in their desultory bout contracted at 144 pounds.
It left the Haney-Garcia rematch a giant question mark for the fall. Even if Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh and the fighters still want to move forward with the bout their performances seriously reduced the interest in the bout, especially compared to their fight 13 months ago.