Sulaiman flags crucial rounds on Garcia vs Haney scorecards

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman has pinpointed four rounds in the Garcia vs Haney fight that need expert analysis.

Reliving Ryan Garcia’s majority decision victory over Devin Haney on his latest podcast, Sulaiman says rounds six, eight, nine, and twelve could considered challenging to score. Therefore, under that logic, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the decision could have gone to Haney.

Sulaiman specifically mentioned rounds eight and nine as swaying the verdict for Garcia, which the WBC figurehead says could have happened as a direct result of a big seventh round for the eventual winner.

If those two crucial rounds had gone to Haney, the card scored 112-112 would read 114-110, the 110-114 for Garcia would read 112-112, and the 109-115 would become 111-113. Those scores equal an even fight. Furthermore, if all four of those rounds went to Haney, there’s a case made for the champion having his hand raised.

Discussing the scoring of each session, Sulaiman said: “It was a fight that you could divide into two sides, the first half and the second half. Devin Haney clearly won five of the first six rounds and seemed on the way to an easy decision win when he was cut in the seventh round, badly hurt, and knocked down. Then he was knocked down again in the tenth and eleventh rounds and made such a dramatic event.

“Regarding the judging and the scores, this is the perfect time to analyze what is happening with the scoring of fights. We are very concerned as we have seen many split decisions and many controversial scores, with one judge going one way and the other judge going the other way.

“We can analyze this fight and say round one easily goes to Garcia. He hurt Haney in the first thirty seconds and won the round clearly.

“Rounds two, three, four, and five were all for Haney but without any drama and without any consequences, no hurting or powerful punches, only in the third round when there was a nice left hook [from Garcia]. But those rounds go clear for Haney. And then round six is for the experts [too close to call without further analysis]. In round seven, there’s a knockdown and a point deduction that anyone can score. Rounds eight and nine are rounds for the experts. Ten and eleven had knockdowns and clear domination [for Garcia] that anyone could score, and round twelve was also a round for the experts.

“So out of all those, we can have four rounds for analysis. Two of the judges gave the eighth and the ninth to Ryan Garcia, which seems to be an effect of what happened in the seventh. This is a topic for another time, and we will be analyzing it, but it is not easy to be a judge; it is a complicated fact, and there is a big difference between the top level and judges who need that expertise.”

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Mauricio Sulaiman’s Garcia vs Haney scorecard

Haney/Garcia

Round 1 – 9 10
Round 2 – 10 9
Round 3 – 10 9
Round 4 – 10 9
Round 5  – 10 9
Round 6 – Open
Round 7 – 8 9
Round 8 – Open
Round 9 – Open
Round 10 – 8 10
Round 11 – 8 10
Round 12 – Open

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Alternative card – All open rounds for Haney

Round 1 – 9 10
Round 2 – 10 9
Round 3 – 10 9
Round 4 – 10 9
Round 5  – 10 9
Round 6 – 10 9
Round 7 – 8 9
Round 8 – 10 9
Round 9 – 10 9
Round 10 – 8 10
Round 11 – 8 10
Round 12 – 10 9

113 – 111 Haney

Official scorecard conversion: 115-19 [112-112], 114-110 [110-114], and 112-112 [109-115]

Result: Haney wins via Majority Decision.

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Alternative card – Rounds 8 and 9 for Haney

Round 1 – 9 10
Round 2 – 10 9
Round 3 – 10 9
Round 4 – 10 9
Round 5  – 10 9
Round 6 – 9 10
Round 7 – 8 9
Round 8 – 10 9
Round 9 – 10 9
Round 10 – 8 10
Round 11 – 8 10
Round 12 – 9 10

111 – 113 Garcia

Official scorecard conversion: 114-110 [112-112], 112-112 [110-114], and 110-114 [109-115]

Result: Split Draw.

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Garcia vs Haney – WBN Scorecard

Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.