Devin Haney calls out Ryan Garcia for selling woof tickets
WBC Lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (25-0, 15ko) took to social media to remind everyone that WBC Interim titlist Ryan “KingRy” Garcia could have been fighting for a title instead of the eliminator fight.
Haney has wanted to get his hands on Garcia for a while. He went out of the way to make it as obvious as possible. There was the time when, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, he sent a message to KingRy saying that once things get back to normal, he was going to “Fuck him up.”
Trainer Bill Haney and the WBC champion confronted Golden Boy Promotions partner Bernard Hopkins by demanding a fight with the WBC Interim titlist.
Equally important, Garcia decided to fight the WBC title eliminator against Luke Campbell instead of the WBO eliminator against Emmanuel Tagoe. KingRy survived an early knockdown and later stopped Campbell impressively with a brutal body shot in the seventh round back in January. Furthermore, his victory set things in motion to collide with the WBC champion.
PUMP THE BRAKES
Well, Garcia pulled off a slick move asking the fans what fight they wanted to see most – him fighting WBC champion Haney or two-divisional champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis. The partisan Texas crowd all in unison called for a fight with Davis.
Garcia went ham on every platform calling for a fight with Davis while being extremely dismissive of The Dream and the mandatory position. KingRy went as far as to appear on Mike Tyson’s podcast called Hot Boxin, and he baited Tank into committing to a fight. The boxing community was on fire all over social media.
Well, not so fast. Garcia pulled off the idea of fighting Davis because a bigger opportunity came into play. Team Garcia would reveal they had a chance of fighting a mega-fight against WBA ‘champion-in-recess’ Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao.
In that situation, nobody can blame Garcia. For a fight of that magnitude, any fighter would have jumped at the opportunity. Also, KingRy continued to treat the WBC champion like an unwanted visitor in saying a fight against Haney did not excite him.
BACK WHERE HE STARTED
Garcia did not get to savor the moment of the mega-fight news very long. For some unknown reason, the Pacquiao fight went up in smoke, and he had to make an about-face by accepting the WBC order to face former WBA Junior Lightweight champion Javier “El Abejon” Fortuna in a title eliminator.
Of course, Haney was watching and waiting like a hawk as all of this was playing out. When the time came to strike, he went for the jugular, reminding everyone that Garcia dropped the ball.
By: Garrisson Bland
