By Adam Baskin: Ryan Garcia is picking Devin Haney to dethrone WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis on December 9th in their fight on DAZN PPV.
The 140-lb contender Ryan, fresh off a knockout loss to Tank Davis, feels that Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) will box his way to a decision over the 34-year-old Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs), but he’s not saying it’ll be a narrow or controversial win like we saw in the Bay Area native’s last fight in May against Vasily Lomachenko.
For the sake of boxing, the judges need to make sure that they pick the right guy in the Haney-Prograis fight because it’ll look bad if one of them, probably the younger & more popular Haney, is given a questionable win.
Ryan gains if Haney wins because a fight between the two would be a bigger PPV-level contest than if the soon-to-be 35-year-old Prograis is victorious. Prograis isn’t nearly as popular with boxing fans in the U.S. as Haney.
Moreover, Ryan would have a better shot of beating Haney, as he’s not a huge puncher like Regis, and he’s well familiar with his style from their many fights when they were in the amateurs.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has already said that Ryan Garcia is the likely next opponent for Haney if he’s victorious on December 9th at the Chase Center in San Francis, California. If Prograis wins, Haney will rematch him unless their fight is a total blowout.
“Devin Haney vs. Regis Prograis, that’s going to be a good one, but Devin Haney is going to pull out the victory,” predicted Ryan Garcia on DAZN Twitter. “As in, come forward and fight? Probably Regis. Haney’s not a come-forward guy.”
It’s impossible to pick Haney with any confidence after watching his last performance against the much smaller & older 35-year-old Lomachenko. Despite Haney’s monstrous size & youth advantage over Loma, he still looked like the loser.
The crowd booed like mad, letting the judges know that they’d messed up, and the boxing fans on social media overwhelmingly had Lomachenko as the winner.
Now that Haney has moved up to 140 to fight someone a little closer to his size against Prograis, he won’t be able to depend on having a huge weight advantage like he’s been accustomed to.
Haney will still be the bigger fighter than Regis after he rehydrates, but he won’t look two or three divisions bigger like he did in his last couple of fights against his smaller foes at lightweight.
“Devin Haney decision, twelve rounds,” said Ryan with his prediction of a Haney victory over the 34-year-old WBC light welterweight champion Prograis on December 9th.
If Prograis can get past Haney’s jab, he will put him in a world of hurt and dent his chin like the shopworn Jorge Linares & Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz did. The 24-year-old Haney’s jab is his primary weapon, as he can’t punch, and he doesn’t have a strong chin to take major power shots.
“I give him credit for becoming undisputed and stuff like that, but I think he had an easier road, that’s all,” said Prograis to Sporting News, talking about Haney having it easy, being elevated to WBC 135-lb title through email, and then beating a flawed three-belt lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr.
“He beat Loma, which was a close fight, but I can’t say he’s overrated, but he had an easier path to undisputed than most people,” said Regis in stating the obvious about Devin.
Haney didn’t fight any of these killers to become undisputed at lightweight:
Shakur Stevenson
Frank Martin
William Zepeda
Keyshawn Davis
Raymond Muratalla
Jamaine Ortiz
There’s a good chance that Haney would have lost to three or four of those fighters unless he had the judging that we saw in his last fight against Vasily Lomachenko, as he would be vulnerable to power and the skills of guys like Shakur, Martin, Zepeda, and Keyshawn.
Does @RyanGarcia pick his rival, @Realdevinhaney, to beat @RPrograis? 🤔
Watch #HaneyPrograis on Saturday, Dec. 9, LIVE on DAZN PPV 🥊 pic.twitter.com/7GNA5bs7DM
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) November 3, 2023