Haney was on complete jelly legs, clinging for dear life. Taking a point from Ryan for hitting on the break without issuing a hard warning first was absurdly harsh in that moment. It halted the entire attack, gave Haney a breather, and let him regroup just as the finishing blow was arriving.
Ryan knows that without Dock stepping in to pause the action and dock that point, Haney was seconds away from being counted out. Instead of a legendary, indisputable finish on his resume, Ryan got a decision win that the commission later wiped clean. That lost moment of closure is why he is still venting years later.
That harsh penalty converted a clear 10-8 round into a 9-9 stalemate on two official scorecards. Crucially, Dock’s timeout bought Haney precious seconds to clear his head right when he seemed on the brink of being finished.
Garcia walked away with a majority decision victory, which state regulators later erased into a no-contest following an ostarine finding. A clean knockout would have stood immune to an overturned verdict on the cards, leaving Haney with zero room to downplay the beatdown.
That reality keeps the fire burning inside Ryan. Coming off an explosive second-round demolition of Conor Benn, talk of a massive rematch is sweeping through boxing circles. Yet for Garcia, the narrative remains unfinished business because he knows Haney was spared by the referee instead of being counted out on the canvas.
When a fight goes to the scorecards, it remains vulnerable to commission politics, paperwork, and overturned decisions. A brutal, face-down stoppage stays in the public consciousness forever. Even with the ostarine ruling overturning the official result to a no-contest, everyone saw Haney take an absolute beating. But because Haney made it to the final bell, he and his team have been able to cling to the technicality of the overturned decision and dismiss the outcome entirely.
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