WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney minimizes the skills of his next opponent, Ryan Garcia, viewing him as fighting in an unskilled, reckless, wildman approach that will result in him getting “caught” in their headliner on April 20th live on DAZN.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) feels he’s got a better ring IQ, boxing ability, and overall talent than the one-dimensional Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs), who sees as just having one weapon, his left hook.
Ryan’s Recklessness
“I’m just a better fighter overall. There’s nothing that Ryan can do that’s better than me,” said Devin Haney to ESPN’s First Take, on what makes him a better fighter than Ryan Garcia ahead of their fight on April 20th.
Haney is obviously overlooking the power and hand-speed advantage that Ryan has over him. Those two things are better than what Haney has because he can’t punch and has average hand speed. Devin is not fast, and his power is on the level of a 126-pounder.
“Ryan just goes in there and jumps on you with no game plan, no nothing,” said Haney. “That’s his only game plan to go in there and try and rough you up and swing for the fences,” Haney continued with his minimizing of Ryan Garcia’s talent. “That’s how he got caught in the Tank fight by being anxious.”
It’s understandable why Ryan would want to use his left hook power shot, as that’s his best weapon. Asking Ryan not to fight without his power would be like telling Tommy ‘Hitman’ Hearns not to throw power shots.
Neutralizing the Threat
“In this fight, if he’s overanxious, he will get caught again. It’s no secret that I’m the better boxer, the smarter fighter, and I got the better IQ. I’m going to go in there and handicap him like I do every opponent. We know what Ryan wants to do, land the [left] hook. That’s all he has. After that, there’s nothing more. Once you handicap him with that, everything goes out the window,” said Haney.
Devin says he’s going to neutralize that weapon and handicap his offense in the same way Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis did last April in his seventh-round knockout win.
Hopefully, Haney doesn’t make it a boring fight like his last one against Regis Prograis, as that was reminiscent of Shakur Stevenson’s last bout against Edwin De Los Santos.
If Haney’s fight with Prograis had been staged in Las Vegas, the fans would have booed him for the overly cautious, non-entertaining pull-back style that he used the entire fight.
Boxing fans don’t want to see that trash, especially when they’re being asked to pay to watch on PPV. So winning is great, but Haney has got to make it worthwhile for the fans on April 20th and not play it safe again.
