The WBC super lightweight title will not be on the line when Devin Haney takes on Ryan Garcia on Saturday night at the Barclays Center, but pride is still very much on the line.
At the weigh-in on Friday, Garcia made it impossible for himself to win the title. According to Michael Benson of talkSPORT, the 25-year-old honored a press conference wager that he would pay Haney $500,000 for each pound of excess weight despite the fact that he was 3.2 pounds overweight.
Haney has added an additional $1.5 million to his winnings. As a result, the bout will proceed without a title.
Social media feuds between the two boxing celebrities have increased the suspense for a big matchup in the division.
Details and odds for a fight
When:Â Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m. ET (main event ringwalks at approximately 11 p.m. ET)
Where:Â Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York
Tickets:Â Vivid Seats
Live Stream:Â DAZN
Odds:Â Haney -800 (wager $800 to win $100); Garcia +550 (wager $100 to win $550)
Preview
Haney will look to defend his crown for the first time since he won it against Regis Prograis back in December. After dominating in the lightweight division, he put on a dominant performance against Prograis.
Garcia is still working his way back from his loss to Gervonta Davis a year ago. He knocked out Oscar Duarte in a December 2023 fight, but this is his first big fight back.
As the odds would indicate, Haney is a big favorite in this win. That’s to be expected. Both fighters might have star power and the ability to draw attention, but only one of them is a world champion with an undefeated record.
Garcia’s skills in self-promotion have allowed him to build up an audience. However, he’s fighting a battle to prove that his boxing skills are commensurate with those promotional chops.
He came up short on his last opportunity to do that. Fighting a former world lightweight champion in Davis, he could have launched his stardom to the next level. He was able to have limited success early in the fight, but he never found a home for his signature left hook and was flattened when Davis was able to counter with his own power shots.
Haney is a much different challenge than Davis. He brings a different level of ringcraft and movement that he intends to use to neutralize Garcia’s biggest advantage.
“Ryan Garcia has power, of course, but Regis Prograis had power, Linares had power, and a lot of these guys had power,” Haney told DAZN’s Off the Cuff (h/t Matt Astbury of DAZN.com). “I’m just on a different level, so he can bring all the power he wants, I’m going to bring the skills, the IQ that I’ve got and handicap him of his power.”
Garcia isn’t short on confidence, either. He obviously wants the fight after paying out $1.5 million just to make sure it still went down after his failure at scale. He believes he can thrive where previous Haney opponents have failed.
“You’ve got to have no mercy on Devin, that’s the problem Lomachenko had, Regis is just not a good fighter, he’s still amateur, in my opinion, in the way he fights. He started late and it’s showing that he started late,” Garcia told DAZN.
Garcia might not lack confidence, but he does lack the skills to pull off this upset. He has a puncher’s chance. His ability to deliver power with his sharp left hook has been a significant part of his rise in the boxing world.
However, we’ve seen what it’s like when he tries to bring that power to an opponent who is at the top of the game. The real scary thing for Garcia is that Haney is a better pure boxer than Davis.
The risk of getting knocked out is less. Haney doesn’t have the same devastating stopping power that powers Tank. But the odds that he gets outclassed from pillar to post are greater.
Expect Haney to shine in one of the brightest moments of his career to date.
Haney, via unanimous decision
