‘King’ Ryan Garcia stunned the boxing world with his points decision win over the previously unbeaten Devin Haney in New York on Saturday night — but he says that the fight should not have gone to the judges.

Garcia scored a majority decision victory over Haney, knocking him to the canvas on three occasions in addition to landing some hard shots with his outstanding left hook. It was these moments that swung the decision in Garcia’s favour, even after he had a point taken away in the mid-rounds for landing a shot during a break.

And it was this decision, along with a failure to stop the fight when Haney appeared to be wearing the damage of the contest, which bothered Garcia in the post-fight presser.

“At the end of the day, [referee] Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” Garcia said, addressing the media in Brooklyn after the final bell. “He should have stopped that fight. It was bad. He was really hurt. I felt bad. I even looked at Bill [Haney], I said, ‘Bro, you should probably stop this.’ He didn’t and that’s it.

“The guy was holding me for dear life. I felt an opportunity to keep swinging while my hands were free and I cracked him, and then [Dock] took a point away when I cracked him. But he held me. I should have knocked him out in that seventh round. They stole that from me.”

That said, Garcia admitted that he was impressed by the toughness of Haney, who retained the WBC super lightweight title after Garcia weighed in three pounds over the 140-pound weight limit on Friday.

“I was surprised he had such heart and recovery,” Garcia said of his opponent. “I cracked him in that first round, I thought it was over. I’m like I won. Easy work. Then he came out firing in the second. He even hurt me with the hook. I was like, damn, maybe he do got a little bit of power.”