Devin Haney’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, sounded like a diplomat, praising Ryan Garcia’s promotional work, willing to overlook his erratic behavior ahead of Saturday’s fight on DAZN PPV in Brooklyn, New York.
For Hearn, he’s hoping that his fighter, WBC light welterweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs), can get past Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) to move towards bigger tests in the 140-lb division if he can continue to make the 140-lb weight limit.
Hearn says that Ryan’s behavior during the build-up might have made Haney question whether he would show up at all.
If Devin has taken his foot off the gas pedal during training, Ryan will take advantage of that, especially if he’s assuming that he’s dealing with a guy who has lost a few marbles. Ryan hits too hard for anyone to assume that he’s an easy out. No one with Ryan’s power is a complete pushover.
Haney Looks Like He’s Struggling
Haney looked pretty rough during Thursday’s final press conference, showing signs of dehydration and looking weakened. From Haney’s appearance, he still has a lot of weight that he’s going to have to take off tonight before the weigh-in. Devin’s team is going to have to work their magic to get those last pounds off.
I don’t know how they do it, but they’ve got some tricks up their sleeves to lose that water weight.
Haney was talking about meeting Ryan in the center of the ring and brawling with him on Saturday night. The question is, was Haney serious or just talking to get publicity?
It’ll be great if Haney does go to war with Ryan because fans are paying good money to see what they hope will be an exciting fight, but they won’t be happy if Devin plays it safe as he did in his last fight against Regis Prograis.
“For me, he’s been so active promotionally, good or bad, it doesn’t really matter,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social about Ryan Garcia. “They feel like he’s ready to go. We don’t know how much is an act. Maybe this kind of mentality will help Ryan Garcia.
“I think we’re going to see the best Ryan Garcia on Saturday night, but it’s definitely been an interesting build-up.
Advantage: Garcia?
“Maybe it’ll make him dig deeper, maybe it’ll make him be more aggressive in the fight, but he’s facing an outstanding fighter in Devin Haney. If you’re Devin, you must have thought during this camp, ‘This fight is not happening.’
“It’s difficult because there’s a lot of people that thought it wasn’t going to happen, and now we’re there,” said Hearn.
If Ryan pulls off the upset, Hearn will need to scramble to try and set up a rematch before he gets away. You can bet that if Ryan wins, a fight against Gervonta Davis will be the direction he’ll go. Tank Davis can sell, and it wouldn’t be the same drag on the promotion for Ryan that we’re seeing with his fight with Haney.
