Devin Haney v Ryan Garcia Fight Brewing
During the course of his last fight against Alfredo Santiago, WBC world lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (24-0, 15 KO’s) managed to damage his right shoulder early in the contest. Even though The Dream would go on to outperform Santiago and win a unanimous decision win, afterwards he would have to submit to surgery to fully remedy the issue. Quickly following the successful procedure, the WBC listed Haney as a ‘champion in recess.’
Clearly Haney is ready and itching for a fight because the young champion has consistently been trying to drum up some action via his Twitter account. Initially the Dream called out his mandatory challenger Javier “El Abejon” Fortuna (35-2-1, 24 KO’s).
Prior to the chaos brought on by COVID-19, Fortuna was preparing to face Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KO’s) to fight for Haney’s vacant WBC strap. Obviously, now that he was feeling better, Haney figured it’d be a more prudent idea if they just cut out the middle man, Campbell, and fight right away. Now it would seem that he is sniffing around for another dust-up.
FRIENDS TURNED PROFESSIONAL FOES
Perhaps the Dream is still up for a bout with Fortuna but, once again from his Twitter account, Haney called out another boxer. This time, Haney set his attention on Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (20-0, 17 KO’s). It’s far from the first time that the WBC lightweight champion has lobbied for this contest. Although, to be honest, there are not many big name or relevant fighters in the division that Haney has not called out.
In one of his pair of tweets aimed directly at Garcia, Haney instructed KingRy to stop ducking him because DAZN would pay him handsomely to make the bout a reality. Going a step further, Haney insulted Garcia’s machismo by saying if they didn’t fight, he’d have to tell his own Mexican fans that Garcia was filled with fear.
QUICK RESPONSE TIME
Unsurprisingly, Ryan Garcia rapidly replied saying that he was down to knuckle-up if Haney was game. Again, Haney has openly called for a fight with Garcia for a while now. In fact, the Dream took the occasion to hop in the ring and challenger Garcia directly after his victory over Francisco Fonseca. While Garcia has never run from the notion of this fight, he has had different levels of willingness.
Here though, Garcia comes off like he is ten toes down for the scrap. The only reservation that Garcia put forth is he would want to face Haney at his best. Therefore, KingRy said that so long as the Dream’s shoulder was completely back up to snuff, he was more than willing to trade leather with Haney.
If pieced together, this would be a fun, entertaining and meaningful prizefight for both men.
By: Bakari Simpson
