The Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney fight has reportedly been signed for the two to meet on April 20th on DAZN PPV, with the official announcement today for the clash.
Dan Rafael reports the Garcia-Haney is a done deal with the “paperwork signed” and the announcement today for the “big fight.”
Key Information
Date: April 20th, 2024
Venue: To be announced
Broadcast: DAZN Pay-per-view
Significance: This is Ryan’s second major PPV event in his career after losing to Gervonta Davis in 2023.
It’s unclear which of the two fighters will have their name first in the contest promotion.
Although Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) is the WBC light welterweight champion, he’s not anywhere near as popular as Ryan Garcia, the social media influencer, so it doesn’t make sense marketing-wise for Golden Boy, Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, to has his name ahead of the challenger.
Questions and Concerns
There are questions about whether a fight between Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) and Haney will sell on PPV because Devin is not popular like Gervonta Davis.
Haney’s last fight against WBC 140-lb champion Regis Prograis was a train wreck in terms of PPV buys on DAZN, bringing in a reported 50,000 buys, which ain’t good.
Pricing the event at $75 was one big problem that the event organizers made because Haney and Prograis weren’t PPV attractions, and the undercard was a skeleton crew of no names.
Selling Ryan vs. Haney on PPV might be a little too ambitious for the promoters, and they should take a hint from the Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev undisputed light heavyweight clash on June 1st, which will be shown on regular ESPN and NOT PPV.
If Haney and Ryan want to become stars, they need to be seen by fans without being hidden behind a paywall that will scare away casual boxing fans, who will balk at paying $70 to $80 to see these two non-stars fight.
What’s Next?
Once the official announcement has been made for the Garcia vs. Haney fight, the information about the undercard, location, and PPV price will be revealed at some point.
The promoters of the Garcia-Haney event need to take a hint from the failure of the Haney-Prograis PPV match and include a good undercard this time, guys that fans actually want to see, like IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias, and float the idea of him fighting the winner. Now, that would be interesting.