By Vince D’Writer: Boxing is an individual sport that is fueled by the spirit of intense competition and notable rivalries. Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney is all about competition, but he is unimpressed with a man who is mentioned in the same conversation with him and a couple of other tremendous fighters.
Back in the early 1980’s, the sweet science was in desperate need of a spark during the course of the post-Ali era. Four talented men in a lighter division stepped up to the plate and injected a bolt of energy in the sport of boxing. Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, and Roberto Duran were all fighters who performed at a high level and most important of all, the quartet of boxers faced each other inside the squared circle. As a reflection of their success, the Hall of Fame group inherited the name ‘The Four Kings.’
Decades later, in January 2021, The Four Kings label was reincarnated as it was used to link Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, and Ryan Garcia. The current undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney has a history of verbal clashes with each of his three counterparts, but it appears that he is least impressed with Ryan Garcia. Due to his popularity on social media and his bark but no bite tactic in which he calls big name boxers out but never fight them, it seems as though Ryan Garcia isn’t taken seriously by the undisputed lightweight champ.
In a recent interview, Devin Haney had a few choice words for Ryan Garcia in regards to his repeated use of the bark but don’t bite tactic. “Ryan Garcia just use other fighters’ names to sell his fights, and then after his fight, he fights nobody. In reality, he calls out all these fighters, he called out Pacquiao, he called out me, he called out Tank. The list goes on and on, and on and on, and on, and he’s never fought none of them. The best person on his resume is Luke Campbell, and Luke Campbell never beat nobody. So what are we even talking about? The fact that we are still talking about Ryan is unbelievable.”
Garcia has shown he has good boxing skills in regards to his punching power and blazing hand speed, but due to the competition level he’s faced, Haney doesn’t acknowledge Garcia’s accomplishments inside the boxing ring. After his recent knockout victory against Javier Fortuna, Ryan Garcia taunted Haney by scanning the crowd, then staring and pointing at Haney.
When you look at the history of Haney, Davis, Lopez, and Garcia, they have all had confrontations with each other, but the beef between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia appears to be more personal. The two have traded words with each other on social media, backstage at boxing events, and in the center of the ring. All the talk between the two is coming close to arriving at the end of the road, and the most logical thing for them to do is lace up the gloves and settle their differences inside of the squared circle.