Devin Haney has taken to social media to confirm that his fight against Ryan Garcia will go ahead on April 20th. Haney says Ryan’s strange behavior is “an act” and that he’s intentionally acting crazy to try and “sell” their fight, which will be shown on DAZN PPV at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The fight is still on, at least for now. Fans aren’t sure if this is Ryan using his bizarre behavior to build hype.
Likely, DAZN’s top brass had already pulled the plug on the fight if they had genuine concerns about Ryan’s mental health, considering it would make them look bad if they allowed the match to go ahead.
Still, it doesn’t reflect well on the event’s promotion because Ryan is doing too good of a job of acting like he’s mentally unraveling.
Devin’s belief that Ryan is faking being crazy does make sense, given that he only started this behavior last Sunday. Before that, Ryan had seemed normal, except for him admitting that he smoked weed and drank.
Haney Calls Garcia’s Bluff
“Give Ryan an Oscar [award], please. This is all an act y’all. The fight is happening on April 20th. He’s just playing crazy to ‘sell it,’ which is weird because there are people out there who are actually crazy, but he’s just acting for attention,” said Devin Haney on X about Ryan Garcia, who has been bizarre since last Sunday.
Some fans believe Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) has suddenly developed schizophrenia since last Sunday, but that doesn’t make sense to some. That condition is said to develop slowly. In Ryan’s case, he’s got it overnight since last Sunday, which is a red flag that it could be an act.
Is It A Marketing Strategy?
Devin’s comments indicate that he believes Ryan is trying to get fans interested in their fight by calling attention to his behavior, thinking he’s crazy.
People believe Teofimo Lopez did the same thing in the build-up to his clash against WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor. Teo acted he was insane, and fans believed he’d mentally come apart. However, he performed well, beating Taylor, and then behaved normally after the contests, making it obvious that his gag had tricked the fans.