UFC welterweight Matt Brown criticized referee Harvey Dock for his decisions during the fight between Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, particularly for deducting a point from Garcia after he punched following Dock’s command for a break, and for not controlling the fighters’ repeated holding onto each other.
Ryan Garcia’s criticism of referee Harvey Dock isn’t solitary. He’s not the only one who’s got a bone to pick with the referee’s questionable decisions during his fight with Devin Haney last Saturday night.
UFC welterweight Matt Brown didn’t hold back. He laid into the referee for his actions, particularly in the seventh round. Garcia, in a first, managed to drop Haney with a brutal left hook. The previously undefeated fighter hit the ground hard.
Haney had a tough time getting back on his feet. This led Garcia to go in for the kill. Haney was clinging on, but Dock decided to deduct a point from Garcia. The penalty was for punching after Dock’s command for a break.
Garcia wasn’t happy. He took aim at Dock after the fight, accusing the referee of “tripping”. He even claimed Dock “stole” a potential knockout win from him. Brown, for his part, agreed with Garcia’s take on things. Especially about that seventh round knockdown.
Brown, speaking on The Fighter vs. The Writer, said, “I didn’t think [Devin Haney] was getting up from it.” He was referring to the knockdown that Dock didn’t call. “Ryan clocked him, Devin falls onto Ryan, Ryan’s holding him up, Ryan lets him go and the f****** referee, you couldn’t be more clearly for Devin Haney than that referee in that round.”
Brown did admit that referees have a tough job. And Haney and Garcia didn’t make it any easier by repeatedly holding onto each other throughout the fight. But, Brown thinks Dock deserves the criticism he’s getting. Especially after that seventh round where he made mistake after mistake following Garcia’s knockdown.
“That was a tough fight for him all the way around, but in that seventh round, how he f****** that up so bad,” Brown said. “There’s a point where we understand how hard of a job they’ve got and we’ve got to give them some leeway. But there’s a point where it’s like that’s some bulls***. You should be fined for that one motherf*****.”
Garcia was the only one who got a point deduction in the fight. It was for the punch after the break. But Brown thinks the referee should’ve taken better control of the situation. Even if he was probably in for a long night during a grudge match between two boxers who clearly didn’t like each other.
“Most of the fight, I think he could have been a little bit harder about holding onto each other,” Brown said. “He never docked a point, particularly for Devin Haney holding but I think Ryan was holding a lot, too, and trying to make it look like Devin was holding.
“It was a tough job for the referee. That was an ugly fight. That was a tough fight for him all the way around.”
As for the result, Garcia secured a majority decision win. It was primarily because of three knockdowns in rounds 7, 10, and 11. Outside of that, Garcia was largely outboxed by Haney. But Brown thinks that was exactly the game plan the 25-year-old fighter from California had in mind the entire time.
“You [saw] it play out in the fight,” Brown said. “[Garcia] was banking on the big shot. He wasn’t outboxing Devin Haney by any stretch. Devin Haney was outboxing him. That’s how the fight became almost even. But he knew that his power was what’s going to win him that fight. The motherf***** was right!
“What sucks about it, too, Ryan is a good boxer. He actually has good boxing, but it’s like he didn’t even try on Saturday against Devin. He didn’t even try to box him. I think he knew Devin was the better boxer, and he knew that wasn’t a good game plan. But some of the silly things like turning his back on the shoulder roll and the constant holding, punching off the break, so much of that. It’s such an ugly fight. It was like the greatest ugly fight I’ve ever seen in my life.”
It may not have been pretty, but Garcia still managed to score three knockdowns. That helped him secure the win over Haney. The victory is now the biggest accomplishment in Garcia’s career. And Brown gives him props for getting the job done just as promised.
“I think that’s what ultimately got Ryan Garcia the win — he pulled Devin into an ugly fight,” Brown said. “You could tell when the fight started getting uglier and uglier, it was favoring Ryan big time. When it was a nice, clean fight, boxer versus boxer, Devin was smoking him.”
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