Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney’s world title fight back in April was one of the most controversial of recent times.
Even the build-up to the fight between the WBC super lightweight champion Haney and former WBC interim lightweight title holder Garcia had the world talking.
‘King Ry’ behaved erratically throughout by making plenty of wild accusations about being abducted and having his phone taken from him, making remarks about Haney’s religion, admitting to smoking weed during camp and then he weighed in drinking beer.
He failed to make the official weight for the fight so was ineligible to win the belt, despite the fact he went on to knock Haney down several times and landed 41% of his power punches when previous opponents had managed to land just 25%. That activity saw Garcia win a majority decision on points.
After the fight, it emerged Garcia failed two drug tests and was subsequently banned. The result has since been declared a no-contest and Garcia was banned for one year, ending April 2025.
Speaking to Manouk Akopyan, Garcia was asked what conditions he would require for a rematch with Haney after also long chasing a rematch with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis who beat him in April 2023.
“Run it back the same way, just a little higher weight class.”
Both men are expected to make the move to welterweight at one stage, however if Haney wants to do it quite so soon remains the best seen.
He could potentially return in what would be a huge fight with WBO super-lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, though Lopez claims Haney turned down a substantial offer.
Garcia is supposed to be having an exhibition fight on 30th December with Rukiya Anpo although his opponent missed the recent press conference because he slept in.
