The Idec Index: Turki Alalshikh Shouldn’t Reward Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney By Moving Forward With Rematch

Rolly Romero is one of the best self-promoters in recent boxing history.
He is incorrect about one thing, though — Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia should not move forward with their rematch next after what transpired Friday night in Times Square. Haney’s uninspiring performance in a wide win over Jose Ramirez and a heavily favored Garcia’s loss to Romero rendered their second bout inadvisable in the short term because they devalued it by passively approaching those two fights.
This is, after all, prizefighting. No fighting, no prize. Or at least lesser prizes for performing the way they did.

That’s the tact Turki Alalshikh should take toward who Haney and Garcia fight next. This needs to be the pivotal point where the owner of The Ring and head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority emphasizes monetarily to not only Garcia and Haney, but much of an entire generation of boxers — entertainment matters.
Their first fight was highly entertaining. Garcia scored three knockdowns, but Haney displayed a lot of courage by getting off the canvas each time and winning enough rounds to make their 12-round fight competitive on the scorecards.
The polarizing Garcia’s ensuing PED ordeal only intensified interest in a rematch. Fans, pundits and obviously Haney rightfully wondered whether Ostarine enhanced Garcia’s performance 12½ months ago at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
They contractually agreed before they fought Friday night — never a good idea to reveal publicly, by the way —
to fight again sometime in October.
Haney boxed in his first fight since he faced Garcia as if he were traumatized by what had occurred. Dissatisfied fans hammered Haney for what they considered running from Ramirez, who couldn’t cut off the ring and seemed slow to get off punches.
Once Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) dropped Garcia with a left hook 14 seconds into the second round of the main event, he looked reluctant to engage during the next 10-plus rounds. Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) admitted afterward that he never found his rhythm in training camp, which continued under the brightest of lights in Times Square.
They can re-establish some momentum by boxing in more fan-friendly ways and winning against capable opponents. Maybe then they can make stronger cases for the types of purses they’ll demand for a rematch.
Fighters often come back from off nights, but their rematch simply doesn’t make any financial sense at the moment.
Matching Haney against Teofimo Lopez seems more marketable because they, too, have history. Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) performed well Friday night and outboxed Arnold Barboza Jr. (32-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round fight to retain his Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles.
Lopez now wants to move up to the 147-pound division to challenge Jaron “Boots” Ennis. It is unclear if Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) would seriously consider opposing Lopez because the unbeaten Ring/IBF/WBA welterweight champ has made it known he wants to fully unify the titles in his division before he moves up to junior middleweight.
Haney-Lopez appears more makeable, even if Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) doesn’t want to squeeze down to the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds.
If Lopez would move all the way up to 147 to face Ennis, he should be willing to fight Haney at least at a catchweight. The weight limit for Haney and Ramirez (29-3, 18 KOs) was 144 pounds.
Whatever happens, Lopez and Romero shouldn’t be rewarded for what they accomplished in Times Square. Neither of their fights were action-packed, but they came to fight against less willing opponents.
Rewarding Garcia and Haney for how they fought by moving forward with their rematch would only encourage them to further ignore that they call this prizefighting for a reason.

Stink-O De Mayo: Canelo Alvarez’s assignment Saturday night was to not only win, but win impressively against undeserving underdog and at least generate some momentum as we move toward a much more challenging fight against Terence Crawford on Sept. 12 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
An apathetic Alvarez instead refused to even attempt to cut off the ring as an unwilling William Scull essentially stole a seven-figure purse. Alvarez acted, just as he had done when he fought movers in the past, as if it is his opponent’s role to stand directly in front of him so he can tee off as he sees fit.
Only one fighter in CompuBox’s 40-year history of counting punches threw fewer than the 152 shots Alvarez attempted in a 12-round fight. Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) won a unanimous decision over Scull (23-1, 9 KOs) at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yet he lost the promotional plot in how he dealt with the absurdly cautious Cuban.
It’s bad enough that the supposed face of boxing has avoided David Benavidez and a rematch with Dmitry Bivol. That the Mexican legend didn’t even try to deliver some form of entertainment during a mismatch for which he was way overpaid definitely didn’t honor the weekend on which he insisted on fighting.

Courageous challengers: Edward Vazquez and Ramon Cardenas were ultimately overpowered by heavily favored champions Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Unlike much of what we witnessed Friday night in Times Square and Saturday night in Riyadh, Vazquez and Cardenas commendably fought Rafael Espinoza and Naoya Inoue as if their careers depended upon the outcomes of those featherweight and junior featherweight championship matches.
They behaved like legacy meant something to them on a weekend when that wasn’t the norm.
Vazquez entered the ring with a knockout ratio of only 21 percent. That didn’t prohibit him from trying to bang it out with an aggressive, unusually tall featherweight who possesses power in both hands.
Espinoza (27-0, 23 KOs) became the first fighter to knock out Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs, 1 NC) in the Fort Worth, Texas, native’s nine-year pro career. Referee Harvey Dock mercifully saved Vazquez from a relentless onslaught in the seventh round.
San Antonio’s Cardenas came at “The Monster” with similar fearlessness in ESPN’s main event.
His second-round knockdown of the undisputed 122-pound champion created one of the two most memorable moments of a largely boring boxing weekend. Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) also displayed fortitude by getting off the canvas for the second time in four fights to regain his composure and break down Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) on his way to an eighth-round stoppage.

Square holes: The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves” card looked good visually, particularly in person, due to the unique setting in Times Square.
Aesthetics aside, there were a lot of logistical lessons to take away from what was an enormous undertaking to put on an event of this magnitude. The fighters are obviously responsible for performing in the ring, but there are adjustments that can be made to ensure that they’re not taken too far out of their comfort zones for the sake of optics.
Garcia, for example, stated during his post-fight press conference that he didn’t realize the ride in a replica of the Batmobile would take so long. After warming up at the nearby Intercontinental Hotel, he cooled down during that block-and-a-half trip to the makeshift venue and called the smell of gas from the car “crazy.”
That doesn’t excuse Garcia’s flat performance, though it is something to consider when staging future Ring cards in unconventional event spaces.

The Final Bell: Martin Bakole clearly considers conditioning a suggestion. That didn’t stop the 299-pound heavyweight from throwing 452 punches during his 10-round majority draw with Efe Ajagba on the Alvarez-Scull undercard. That’s seven more punches than Alvarez and Scull combined to throw (445) in their 12-round, 168-pound title fight. … Someone should tell Edgar Berlanga to stop pushing for a rematch with Alvarez. Credit to Berlanga and his manager, Keith Connolly, for maneuvering their way to a payday in excess of $9 million for fighting Alvarez on Sept. 14 at T-Mobile Arena. Berlanga showed toughness against boxing’s undisputed super middleweight champion. He also lost nine rounds at an absolute minimum. There is no reasonable justification for even mentioning them fighting again. … A tip of the cap to Jack Catterall for having a sense of humor on X during those mostly forgettable 36 rounds of “action” Friday night. The British southpaw deadpanned, “Tell you what – I get called boring. This makes me look like a prime Marvin Hagler.” … Bob Arum told me a few months ago that he would advise Naoya Inoue to stay away from 6-foot-1 Rafael Espinoza if “The Monster” moves up to the featherweight division. We got another reminder as to why Sunday night.