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Ryan Garcia served up one last bit of weirdness.
The 140-pound contender, who is scheduled to face Devin Haney on pay-per-view Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, lost the right to fight for Haney’s WBC belt when he came in 3.2 pounds over the division limit Friday morning.
Then, at the public (unofficial) weigh-in in the afternoon, he gave professionalism the middle finger by removing his shirt and chugging down what appeared to be a beer on stage.
The fighters later faced off for one final stare down, which was intense but relatively uneventful.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) has been acting erratically during the lead-up to the biggest fight of his career, including a series of bizarre and crude comments at the final news conference on Thursday.
He made a bet with Haney at the news conference that either fighter who came in overweight would have to pay the other $500,000 per pound, which means Garcia owes Haney $1.5 million. And he agreed to pay, which evidently allowed the fight to go on as scheduled.
Some have expressed concern for Garcia’s wellbeing in the fight given his state of mind and Haney’s pound-for-pound ability.
Haney won his title by shutting out Regis Prograis in his most recent fight, in December.
The Haney-Garcia fight is available on DAZN PPV.
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