Devin Haney was reportedly in talks with several opponents according to Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn, who is representing Haney as a promoter at this point in time. While a fight with Conor Benn at welterweight seemed like a possibility, Ryan Garcia has now appeared at the forefront of these rumors to become the next in line to potentially face Haney in the near future.
Like Conor Benn (22-0, 14 KO’s), Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KO’s) is also connected to the DAZN streaming platform, which in turn is linked to various different promoters including Benn’s Matchroom and Garcia’s Golden Boy Promotions. Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KO’s), essentially a free agent, has chosen to align himself with Matchroom following the expiration of his three-bout Top Rank contract, thus a fight with Garcia appears to be a feasible option for him.
Ryan Garcia has apparently been the first to initiate a fight with Haney, first through a poll in which he asked fans to decide on his next opponent with options between Rolando “Rolly” Romero (15-1, 13 KO’s) and Devin Haney.
With Haney winning out in the aforementioned poll, Garcia revealed that he reached out to Haney and his team for a potential fight.
“I’ve advised my team to contact team Haney to discuss and make the fight happen between Devin and I,” Garcia stated on December 19th.
“The ball is in your court Devin [Haney]. I’ve made my move and I’m showing you and the boxing community that I’m committed to this fight.“
Haney later confirmed that Ryan Garcia had reached out to his team.
“These are facts.” Haney stated in a post on Twitter.
Supposedly, this means that the two are now in negotiations to arrange a potential fight. Devin Haney currently holds the WBC super lightweight title after recently conquering it from Regis Prograis (29-2, 24 KO’s) on December 9th.
Ryan Garcia also successfully completed his match a week before Haney’s fight on December 2nd, defeating Oscar Duarte by knockout in a match that was also held at 140 lbs. With the two fighters aligned through their promoters whose fights are broadcasted on the same network of DAZN, it appears that there are no real barriers to a potential match being arranged as both fighters appear to have interest in fighting each other.
