Devin Haney vs Ryan Garcia now official
Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia have officially pen to paper for their fight in Las Vegas on April 20.
The score is currently even between the two rivals after their six amateur fights.
Following a series of discussions, which went on for a number of weeks, it seems that there was finally a breakthrough in the last week, with both parties showing interest in a lucrative showdown on DAZN PPV, which has been made official with the release of the fight poster today, February 10.
Eddie Hearn met with Devin’s father, Bill Haney, last week in Las Vegas, where he staged Conor Benn vs Peter Dobson.
Since Mexican megastar Canelo jumped ship to fight under PBC on Amazon Prime, DAZN has found themselves in need of an American attraction to drive sales.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) comes off a dominant performance over Regis Prograis, which saw the 25-year-old methodically breakdown his opponent over 12 rounds in San Francisco late last year.
The win awarded him the WBC super lightweight title, which Haney added to his trophy cabinet alongside the belts he acquired from becoming the undisputed champion at lightweight, when he beat George Kambosos Jr twice – both times in Australia – and then defended them against Vasyl Lomachenko in a very close contest.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), meanwhile, comes off an eight-round stoppage win over Oscar Duarte, in a comeback fight that followed his defeat to Gervonta Davis last year.
The 25-year-old was unable to match the level of Davis, which led to him being stopped by a sickening body shot in the seventh round of their one-sided contest.
However, under new trainer Derrick James, Garcia looks to tear up the script by beating Haney to win a world title, something that many believe he is still more than capable of.
Garcia wrote on Instagram on February 9: “Game 7 this one is for everything… it counts now Devin. This fight for me means everything.
“This is what I meant when I spoke on PBD [Patrick Bet-David’s] podcast. ‘I’m coming back for everything in Blood.’ I ask you guys to pray for Devin and his health. Pray his dad stops this fight.
“[Devin] will be needed to be carried out if this fight doesn’t get stopped at the appropriate time.”
Haney-Garcia has all the ingredients to be a fight of the year contender, with their storied history and the need for both boxers to even the score; plus the fight itself will see two skilful, speedy super-lightweights clash in a 50-50 affair where both have extensive knowledge of each other.
The score so far…
Here’s the results of four of their six fights recorded on BoxRec:
20/05/2012: Ryan Garcia W-UD Devin Haney
11/01/2014: Devin Haney W-UD Ryan Garcia
13/06/2014: Ryan Garcia W-SD Devin Haney
07/01/2015: Devin Haney W-UD Ryan Garcia