Tim Bradley insists Devin Haney will be ready to face Arnold Barboza Jr. if Ryan Garcia needs to be pulled from the April 20th card on DAZN PPV at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Devin’s a “total package” and he got rich young, Bradley gushes. Let’s ignore the shaky win against Lomachenko and that time he faced an ancient Regis Prograis.
Barboza? Try Ticket Refunds!
Barboza Jr. (29-0, 11 KOs) is the replacement Golden Boy boss Oscar De La Hoya has waiting in the wings if the superstar phenom Ryan can’t go for any reason.
Bradley isn’t saying there will be a stampede of fans demanding their money back for their ticket and pay-per-view purchases.
Without talented, charismatic Ryan Garcia on the April 20th card, people won’t want to pay to watch Haney fight Barboza.
Ryan is the lynchpin that holds the event together. Without him, it would be at an empty Barclays Center with crickets chirping that night.
As we saw in Haney’s last fight with Regis Prograis at the Chase Center in San Francisco, they reportedly gave away complimentary tickets to fill the empty arena.
Let’s Talk Shakur: The Real Fight We Want
If DAZN and Golden Boy Promotions want to save the April 20th event, they need to take Shakur Stevenson up on his offer to step in to replace Ryan as the opponent for Haney. That’s the best possible solution, and if they were smart, they’d already be talking to Top Rank about having Shakur ready.
The question is, would Bill Haney, Devin’s dad, agree to have Shakur (21-0, 10 KOs) as the replacement for Ryan Garcia? This writer doubts it. It’s believed that Haney felt the 135-lb division because he was terrified of having to defend his undisputed lightweight championship against Shakur when he became his WBC mandatory, and he had him over a barrel.
Rather than risk his neck fighting Shakur, Haney vacated and headed north to safety at 140 against the past his best 35-year-old Regis Prograis. It was a slick move by Bill to have Devin weasel out just in the nick of time, but utterly pathetic as well.
Desperate Times Call for Bold Moves
- Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
- Subriel Matias
- Teofimo Lopez
- Raymond Muratalla
- Andy Cruz
- Erickson Lubin
- Janibek Alimkhanuly
Given that Haney rehydrates to 165 to 170 lbs for his fights, this writer threw in some 154 and 160-pounders because those are guys he should be fighting against if he weren’t a weight bully.
Bradley’s Haney Cheer Squad
“Look, I’m not worried about Devin Haney. He’s a complete professional. He lives the sport. He’s one of the youngest millionaires out there. He started the game really young,” said Tim Bradley to Probox TV YouTube channel, gushing with praise of WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney, who many fans felt deserved a loss to Vasily Lomachenko and then cherry-picked 35-year-old Regis Prograis after seeing his poor performance against little known second tier fighter Danielito Zorrilla in his previous fight.
“You know, 17-years-old, fighting in Mexico. He’s the total package. He’s going to be focused [for the Ryan Garcia fight on April 20th], he’s going to be ready, whether it’s Ryan Garcia or [Arnold] Barboza, he’s going to ready for whoever,” said Bradley.
