Bill Haney, the father and trainer of WBC 140-lb ‘Champion in recess’ Devin Haney, fired back at the rumors that Devin’s fight against Ryan Garcia didn’t sell many PPV buys on April 20th.
In an interview this week, Bill claimed that the Haney-Garcia event brought in more PPV buys than any other event this year, 2024. However, when Bill was asked for the PPV numbers, he confessed that he didn’t have the official totals.
Going into Haney vs. Garcia, there were high expectations that it would hit the one million PPV buy market due to Ryan’s popularity on Instagram with his 12 million followers and Devin’s recent success, including his capture of world titles in two weight classes.
“The fight didn’t sell and doesn’t sell when it did more pay-per-views than any other fight this year. What the hell are we talking about, man?” said Bill Haney to Thaboxingvoice on X, talking about the April 20th contest between his son, Devin Haney, and Ryan Garcia.
“We’re seven months in, and it did more than any of the other fights, but Devin don’t sell?
“I haven’t been given an official number,” said Bill Haney when asked what are the official PPV numbers for the Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia fight.
Earlier this week, Ryan Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, said that Haney couldn’t sell and scolded him for celebrating at a bowling alley about having his loss erased by the New York State Atheltic Commission due to Ryan’s PED settlement.
De La Hoya saw that as a “pathetic” way to get a win and looked forlorn to celebrate it. Although he didn’t say it, he saw it as weak to have a loss erased.
Many fans on social media believe that whatever PPV numbers the April 20th event did bring in were due to Ryan’s popularity, not Devin’s.
Some feel that Haney could have hurt interest in the event by talking about Ryan drinking and minimizing his chances of winning the fight. This would have poisoned a water well. It would have been better for Haney to keep his thoughts to himself about Ryan and let Bill do the talking.