Promoter Oscar De La Hoya posted a message to Devin Haney on social media, calling him “The best 140-pounder in the world”, saying he wants him and Ryan Garcia to “break PPV records” in their next fight.
WBC light welterweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) and Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) are in negotiations right now for a fight in early 2024 if it gets made, but it remains to be seen if it will.
De La Hoya wants to build Haney’s profile
Obviously, Haney isn’t the best fighter in the 140 lb division or even the second best. His boring performance against WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis on December 9th and the poor PPV numbers he brought in showed that he’s not on the level of IBF champ Subriel Matias or WBO champ Teofimo Lopez.
It’s going to take a lot more than De La Hoya pouring compliments on Haney to make the boxing public want to see him and Ryan Garcia fight on PPV. Haney is boring to watch and isn’t a PPV fighter. If De La Hoya wants Ryan to be involved in a profitable PPV fight, he needs to try and entice Gervonta Davis into fighting him again.
It’s questionable whether Ryan vs. Haney will sell on PPV because no one is demanding it and Devin’s dreadful numbers on DAZN against 35-year-old Prograis showed that he can’t sell. That event brought in a reported 50K buys, which ain’t good.
Haney admitted that his goal at 140 isn’t to try to become undisputed, which is understandable because there isn’t a George Kambosos Jr. for him to collect all four titles against as he did at 135.
If Haney wanted to become undisputed at light welterweight, he would need to do it the hard way by fighting Subriel Matias, Teofimo Lopez, and whoever ends up with the WBA belt that Rolly Romero is sitting on without defending.
Cash-out crossroads?
Ryan posted on social media on Christmas that he would offer Haney a “fair deal,” which hinted that he’s the A-side in the negotiations and that his newly won WBC 140-lb belt and his past undisputed lightweight championship don’t hold any value.
It’s Ryan’s best option for a big payday at light welterweight, and it’s important that De La Hoya gets this fight put together before he gets beaten again.
With the way the 25-year-old Ryan Garcia looked in his last fight against Oscar Duarte on December 2nd, it’s critical that De La Hoya put him in a cash-out fight before he gets beaten by one of the contenders at 140.
Let’s do it brother.. Happy Holidays to you & yours 🤲🏽 https://t.co/fbjpnVbIzZ
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) December 26, 2023
Haney dream fight in Saudi
“I feel good. I put on a great performance for the fans, and I’m happy. We’re in negotiations and my dream is to fight here in Saudi,” said Devin Haney to Fight Hub TV about being in talks for a fight with Ryan Garcia.
“If not that fight, any fight happen here. We’re still negotiating. If we can come to terms, maybe.”
It’s questionable whether the Saudis will want to pull the trigger on a Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney fight in Saudi Arabia. Even if they were, can the deal get made? Haney thinks his WBC 140-lb trinket title means something in negotiations, and it doesn’t.
What does matter is Ryan’s 11 million Instagram followers, which makes him the star in this fight, and puts Haney in the role of the B-side opponent, and a boring one at that.
“Nah, if he wanted to fight me, the fight would get made,” said Haney when asked if he thinks Gervonta Davis wants to fight him. “We’ve seen Ryan has raised his hands. We’ll see if we can make it happen.
“I was killing myself to make the weight. I’ve been saying that for a while now,” said Haney on him, draining down to fight at 135 for years. “But I feel so much stronger and so much better at 140, and the world saw.”
Of course, Gervonta doesn’t want to fight Haney. He’s already established that, and it’s understandable why. Haney’s rehydrated weight of 165 lbs for his recent title challenge against Prograis at 140 showed that he’s a super middleweight, who somehow finds a way to boil down to the lighter weights. Why would Tank Davis want to fight a super middleweight?
“No, as of right now, that’s not really my goal. I want to make the biggest fights happen, so we’ll see,” said Devin on whether he wants to become undisputed champion at light welterweight.
Haney knows that if he tried to become undisputed at 140, he’d have to mix it up with Subriel Matias and Teofimo Lopez, and those guys are no joke. They’d have no problem solving the Shakur Stevenson style that Haney has adopted.
No Crawford fight for Devin
“I didn’t say Crawford. Maybe in the future. Right now, I’m still just getting my feet wet at 140. When we go up to 147 to test the water and see how I feel, and let myself grow into the weight,” said Haney.
Devin knows what time it is. Terence Crawford is a bridge too far for Haney and would be a massacre if that fight happened. More importantly, it would mess up Haney’s marketability, making it difficult to peddle his future fights on PPV. They’re already drawing poor numbers, but they would likely get far, far worse after a loss to Crawford.
“It was an amazing performance. I’m super proud of Devin on how he handles himself inside and outside the ring on being a two-time champion. I can’t speak enough on how proud I am,” said his dad, Bill Haney.
“That’s a fight that if we couldn’t have gotten the former ‘Face of Boxing’ [Gervonta Davis], we’ll settle for a fight against Ryan Garcia. Devin Haney against Ryan Garcia. For all intents and purposes, we’re working on it right now,” said Bill when asked if he believes the Ryan vs. Devin fight will happen.
“If Gervonta Davis was serious and actually wanted to fight Devin, we could make it happen. Ryan Garcia has raised his hand and he looks like he might be the next opponent for Devin,” said Bill.
