Fight Week: Devin Haney back in spotlight against Ryan Garcia in New York City
FIGHT WEEK
Pound-for-pounder Devin Haney is scheduled to defend his 140-pound title against Ryan Garcia on pay-per-view Saturday in Brooklyn.
DEVIN HANEY (31-0, 15 KOs)
VS. RYAN GARCIA (24-1, 20 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, April 20
- Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York
- TV/Stream: Pay-per-view
- Division: Junior welterweight (140 pounds)
- At stake: Haney’s WBC title
- Boxing Junkie Pound-for-pound: Haney No. 10
- Odds: Haney 6½-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
- Significance (up to five stars): *****
- Also on the card: Arnold Barboza Jr. vs. Sean McComb, junior welterweights; Bektemir Melikuziev vs. Pierre Dibombe, super middleweights; John Ramirez vs. David Jimenez, junior bantamweights; Charles Conwell vs. Nathaniel Gallimore, junior middleweights; Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs. Vaughn Alexander, super middleweights
- Background: Haney is one of the fastest rising stars in the world. The 25-year-old from San Francisco has climbed to the pinnacle of the sport with one significant victory after another in the 135- and 140-pound divisions over the past half decade. He defeated in succession Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jorge Linares, Joseph Diaz Jr., George Kambosos Jr. (the first of two consecutive fights for the undisputed 135-pound championship), Vasiliy Lomachenko and Regis Prograis (to win his 140-pound belt). Haney has only average punching power — none of those victories came by knockout — but his skill set and ring acumen rival that of anyone on the planet, as he demonstrated in his brilliant shutout of Prograis in December. Garcia, also 25, is a good, quick-handed boxer with elite power but is best known for a brutal loss to Gervonta Davis and as a social media star who has been open about his mental health issues. He built considerable momentum in the ring in 2021 and 2022, stopping Luke Campbell, outpointing Emmanuel Tagoe and knocking out Javier Fortuna. Then, in April of last year, Davis stopped him with a body shot in the seventh round of their super fight. Garcia moved down from 140 to a catchweight of 136 for the fight. He rebounded from the loss to stop Oscar Duarte in eight rounds in December. The Haney-Garcia fight is taking place in New York even though both fighters are originally from California.
ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK
FRIDAY
- Kurt Scoby vs. Dakota Linger; junior welterweights, Atlanta (DAZN)
SATURDAY
- Cain Sandoval vs. Angel Rebollar, junior welterweights, Commerce, California (UFC Fight Pass)
- Juergen Uldedaj vs. Damir Beljo, cruiserweights, Munich, Germany (DAZN)