Ryan Garcia knocks Devin Haney down 3 times and hands his amateur rival his first pro loss

NEW YORK: Ryan Garcia’s behavior leading up to his bout against Devin Haney seemed so erratic that some people thought he shouldn’t be allowed to fight at all.

Think of the performance they would have missed.

Garcia knocked Haney down three times and handed the WBC super lightweight champion his first loss, winning the fight by majority decision Saturday night but not the title because he was over the weight limit.

Garcia’s odd actions in public and on social media throughout the buildup led to questions about how serious he was about this fight. It sure seemed as though he didn’t devote enough time for training when he was more than 3 pounds above the 140-pound limit on Friday.

But the speed and power in his hands was too much for Haney, who was hurt right from the opening round and went down in the seventh, 10th and 11th.

“Come on guys, you really thought I was crazy?” Garcia screamed to the fans during his post-fight interview in the ring.

Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) won by scores of 115-109 and 114-110 on two of the judges’ cards, while the third had it 112-112.

The Associated Press scored it 114-110 for Garcia.

The 25-year-olds from California split six fights as amateurs, but Haney had the stronger pro career, winning the undisputed lightweight title and then moving up to win the WBC belt in his first fight at 140 pounds.

Garcia couldn’t take that, but he took Haney’s perfect record. Haney fell to 31-1.

Haney had seemingly taken his place among the best fighters in the world, while it became easy to wonder if Garcia was overhyped. Garcia was stopped by Gervonta Davis last year in his biggest fight and expectations were he was going down again, even as he insisted he was ready to fight despite the appearance that he spent more time on the internet than in the gym.