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Did Devin Haney Cheat? Boxing World Erupts as Video Shows ‘5 Kidney Shots’ Land on Ryan Garcia

Published 04/22/2024, 4:05 PM EDT

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The boxing world is unhappy at the moment with Devin Haney. While the 2-division world champion assumed the position of a heavy favorite going into his fight against Ryan Garica, unfortunately, he fell short of the expectations. In his loss, fans were disappointed. His critics dissected his entire run in the ring, looking for any other instances where his performance fell short of the high standards he’d set for himself.

As per the rules in professional boxing, certain shots are illegal. Like slapping, hammer blows, low blows, rabbit punches, and kidney shots. While he lost to Garcia on a majority decision, he’s got no respite from the flak he faces for some of these shots. Especially for the ”5 kidney shots” he evidently took at his opponent.

Who’s at fault here?

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A Ryan Garcia fan account shared an excerpt video of the fight on their X feed. In it, Haney can be seen landing some serious, kidney punches on Garcia. The relentless punches continue till he lands five of them on the left backside of ‘KingRy’. After the 5 shots elapse, Garcia recuperates and retorts back with a shot taking control of the fight.

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Kidney shots themselves aren’t entirely illegal in boxing, but going for the kidneys with the specific intent to injure is illegal and can lead to point deductions or even disqualification. Generally, when such shots are thrown repeatedly, referees intervene immediately. In this case, that did not happen. However, in Haney’s defense, it must also be noted that Ryan Garcia was also seen turning his back to Haney multiple times, something that even the referee Harvey Dock warned him about.

But that did not stop Garcia’s fans from throwing flak at the former undisputed lightweight champion. The video posted by the fan read, “Y’all still don’t know why he kept hittin Ryan there?” While fans started figuring out an answer to the question posed by the admin of the account, a huge set engaged in a conversation that began taking serious swipes at ‘The Dream’.

Fans have a field day seeing Devin Haney land low blows on Ryan Garcia

One pertinent detail that most boxing fans noticed was that Garcia emerged out of that fight unscathed. A fan took cognizance of this and pointed out that despite those lethal kidney shots, Haney could hardly inflict any damage on his opponent.

They might have been low blows and that too toward the kidney, but another user argued that those punches were not even that powerful, evidently taking a dig at Devin Haney’s power.

A user cited the trick that Gervonta Davis employed with Garcia, a fight in which he was dealt his career’s only loss. In that matchup, ‘Tank’ leveraged Garcia’s rib injury to take calculated shots at it. Was Haney trying to do something similar?

There is speculation that Haney’s jaw took some serious damage with a left hook that Garcia landed on him. A fan while citing such speculation shaded Haney for not making a difference against KingRy.

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Boxing fans can be a little too harsh with their digs sometimes. In comparison to the times Haney landed his kidney shot on Ryan Garcia, a user asked how many times the fighter got dropped.

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What do you think about the kidney shots that Haney landed on Ryan Garcia? Should he have been stopped right there by the referee? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.

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Written by:

Mohammed Shafiulla

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Mohammed Shafiulla is a Boxing writer at EssentiallySports. With a Master’s degree in Journalism from a reputed institute, Shafi has cemented his position as one of the astute observers of boxing at ES. One of the early supporters of Naoya Inoue, Shafi has covered his transition from a Japanese boxer with a niche fan following to a power-punching global boxing star.
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Edited by:

Gokul Pillai