The initial plans for Ryan Garcia to challenge Devin Haney for the WBC super-lightweight title in March after stopping Oscar Duarte appear to be in a lurch. Garcia’s recent tweets suggest a change in the initial direction. Devin Haney, fresh from an impressive performance against Regis Prograis in December, is now looking for opponents to fill the gap left by Garcia.
Each party has blamed the other group for the breakdown in negotiations. Since then, ‘King Ry’ has decided to move on with other opponents like Rolly Romero or Isaac Cruz. Soon after, Bill Haney, Devin Haney’s father, asserted that Ryan pulled out of the fight because he was afraid of his son. Many in the boxing world seemed to agree, as there was no other reason for the sudden pullout from Garcia. However, according to his recent statement, Ryan Garcia’s father believes that his son still has an upper hand over Haney and dislikes the favoritism shown towards Devin Haney.
Ryan Garcia’s father reminds the world of his son’s amateur fights against Devin Haney
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Henry Garcia, Ryan Garcia’s father, hinted that Ryan might have had an upper hand against Devin Haney, stemming from their previous encounters in the amateur scene. While talking to FightHype.com, He said, “He’s the one that gave Devin Haney his first 8 count, yeah. My son fought Devin Haney five times. He beat him three times, and Devin Haney beat him twice. So, it’s on, it’s on. But Ryan gave him 8 count, gave him his first 8 count. And I was there. I was his coach.”
While calling out the people who hype up Devin Haney, Garcia Sr. said, “He won that National, and he beat him in West Virginia too. He blew his eardrum out, yeah. See but people don’t know that and people won’t say that. Because they’re like, ‘I’m not gonna say that,’ but I’m gonna tell you that, ‘Hey we beat Ryan, we did this, we did that.’ Okay, yeah I’m gonna give you that. But we also beat you, okay?”
The father, who often stays away from the limelight, unlike Devin Haney’s father, recently had some lessons for Bill when the negotiations with Gervonta Davis fell apart a few weeks ago.
Henry Garcia teaches Bill Haney how to negotiate
In the negotiations for a fight between Devin Haney and Gervonta Davis towards the end of December, Henry Garcia asserted that the initial interactions had been less than ideal. Specifically, he pointed out that the elder Haney’s confrontational remarks about the hard-hitting southpaw from Baltimore may have ended up straining the negotiations permanently.
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Henry Garcia said, “Trust me, Bill Haney is a smart man. He knows what he has to do. He knows what he has to do. Alright? But the way he’s doing it is all wrong right now.” He told Bill Haney at that time, that you must never downplay your opponent before the bout is finalized.
Garcia Sr. continued, “You don’t want to do that because you’re like saying, ‘Hey man you’re full of this, you’re a piece of this and you’re a piece of that but can you let me in for a moment so we can have dinner?” Will all this bad blood, it remains to be seen if the two will ever face each other again, inside the squared circle.
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What are your thoughts about this? Do you think the two of them will face each other again inside the ring? Tell us in the comments below.
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