Devin Haney against Ryan Garcia was the most controversial bout of the year for many different reasons.
The build-up to the super-lightweight championship battle between two young and talented fighters was marred by all sorts of altercations.
Plenty of them were verbal as Garcia fired a range of accusations at everyone from complaining about ticket prices to poking fun at Haney’s record to more outlandish accusations.
The seemingly troubled Garcia had people worried about his mental state, then weighed in 3lbs over the 140lb limit but managed to put Haney down three times on his way to a surprise points win.
Shortly after the fight, it was revealed that he tested positive for a banned substance before and after the contest and has since been banned for 12 months by The New York State Athletic Commission, though has always protested his innocence.
Haney has now accused Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya of withholding pay-per-view money.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, De La Hoya has strongly denied those claims and simply stated that the ‘fight didn’t sell’.
“There really is no latest. The fight didn’t sell the way they expected, that’s it.
When a Canelo and now a Shakur is attacking my integrity, is attacking the company, then maybe there is something I must do about it but the bottom line is the numbers came in and they just didn’t perform the way Devin Haney thought they would perform.
The fight didn’t sell. I told him you can check my books, send 1000 lawyers to my office, I don’t hide anything. The facts are the facts. When they talk against me it’s rubbish, it’s crazy, it’s uncalled for.”
Garcia himself recently revealed that the fight registered 400-500 thousand buys on box office.
