Ryan Garcia has revealed on media that he’s asking his team to begin negotiations with WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney for a fight between them to take place next.
This is a surprise move for the popular Golden Boy star, Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs), as he talked about wanting to challenge Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero for his WBA 140-lb title next. It was believed that Ryan wanted to defeat Rolly and then face Haney next in a big-money unification fight.
Calculated gamble
Ryan, having changed his mind, suggests that he was worried about his chances of success against the hard-hitting but badly flawed Rolly (15-1, 13 KOs). If Ryan were to lose to Rolly, he would never get the bigger payday against Haney.
This was a smart move by Ryan because he likely would have lost to Rolly, who handled him with ease in their sparring session years ago. Ryan was turning his back and cowering when attacked by Rolly in the video leaked.
These are facts.. https://t.co/FFH8ObQiG2
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) December 20, 2023
Instagram factor
Unless the Saudis choose to stay the Haney vs. Garcia fight in their country, paying them both big money, it will require that Ryan lean on his 11 million+ Instagram followers for this fight to be a success on DAZN PPV.
The teens that follow Ryan on Instagram will be willing to pay to watch him fight Haney. Regular & hardcore boxing fans will be less interested after watching Ryan quit against Gervonta Davis last April and fight scared in his last bout against little-known lightweight Oscar Duarte on December 2nd.
Haney won’t help PPV
Haney’s recently reported poor PPV numbers of 50K for his fight against Regis Prograis on December 9th shows that he’s not a fighter that he can’t sell.
Devin hasn’t reached that point where fans want to pay to watch him fight; a big part of that is he has no power and fights a lot like Shakur Stevenson, hitting & running and focusing on defense. The only fans who like to watch that style are those who enjoyed Floyd Mayweather Jr’s dull style.
Haney’s style is too boring and is largely dependent on his dad, Bill, to create interest in his fights outside of the ring because he lacks charisma. As for the Regis Prograis fight, Bill Haney will need to do all the talking.
If Ryan wants to get the casual fans interested in this fight, he needs to hire Prograis’ strength coach, Evins Tobler to do the talking for him because he doesn’t have much to say either.
The only reason his fight with Tank Davis did well is because of his 11 million followers, who would go to the ends of the earth for him. Adding Tobler to the team would help Ryan because he can just wind up and set him loose during the press conferences and have him do all the interviews.