Ryan Garcia’s hanging around superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr this week has gotten under Devin Haney’s skin, seemingly not happy with the two paling around.
It’s believed that Mayweather is taking the 25-year-old Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) under his wing to mentor him and help him train for his next fight, be it WBC light welterweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) or someone else.
Haney bitter
Mayweather said this week that he views Ryan as one of the top three fighters in boxing, along with Canelo Alvarez and Gervonta Davis. Haney wasn’t mentioned by Mayweather as one of the top fighters, which makes sense, given the reports of his lowly 55K PPV numbers for his fight with Regis Prograis on December 9th on DAZN.
Reacting to Ryan Garcia & Floyd hanging around, Haney this on social media, “Floyd can’t say or help you.” Ryan then replied back with, “Cry me a river,” basically letting Haney know he’s jealous about Mayweather paying attention to him.
From Mayweather’s perspective, it’s understandable why he would want to shower praise on Ryan Garcia because he’s got 11 million followers on Instagram and a whole bunch on YouTube and Twitter.
With that kind of following, Ryan is arguably the most popular boxer in the U.S. Even Gervonta Davis, ‘The Face of Boxing,’ doesn’t have the kind of fanbase that Ryan Garcia enjoys. Canelo Alvarez has more fans, but he’s from Mexico.
In terms of American fighters, Ryan is arguably the most popular, and Mayweather is obviously aware of that; hence, he’s paying a lot of attention to Ryan.
What’s Next for Ryan Garcia?
A fight with Haney is a possibility for Ryan, but that would be a mistake because he needs to face opposition that brings something to this table. Haney has nothing going for him. He’s just a belt holder and an unpopular one at that.
Ryan would be doing Haney a favor by blessing him with a fight, as he won’t be able to help bring in PPV buys because fans dislike his boring fighting style. He fights like Shakur Stevenson, and fans don’t want to see that kind of fighting.
Rather than facing Haney next, Ryan should fight one of these guys:
- Sandor Martin
- Gervonta Davis
- Jamaine Ortiz
- Arnold Barboza Jr.
- Shohjahon Ergashev