Devin Haney is still talking about his loss to Ryan Garcia heading into his crucial comeback fight this Friday, May 2nd, against Jose Ramirez at Times Square in New York City.
Interestingly, Devin doesn’t appear to have accepted that he was beaten by the better fighter, Ryan, in their last match. He states that nobody can beat him “on an even playing field.” You can tell by the way he’s still harping on this that he’s unable to confront the truth of what happened to him that night against Garcia.
Rematch Dreams
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) is confident that he’s going to defeat Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) and get the rematch with Kingry in October as planned by Turki Alalshikh. However, there’s doubt whether he’s the same fighter he was previously before getting beaten up by him last April.
The former WBC and WBO lightweight champion Ramirez has a good chance of defeating Haney because he can punch. His power isn’t quite as good as Ryan’s, but it is close enough for him to do the job on Haney. If he loses to Ramirez, his excuses for his defeat against Garcia, blaming it on him testing positive for PEDs, won’t be taken seriously by the sympathetic fans..
“He knows I’m coming, and I know he’s coming,” said Devin Haney to Cigar Talk, about his planning to fight Ryan Garcia in October if he’s victorious against Jose Ramirez this Friday night at Times Square in New York City. “We’re both in the dungeons preparing, and we’re going to come out like gladiators and get it on.”
Devin still needs to defeat Ramirez before he can say he’s “coming” after Ryan. Hopefully, there’s no controversy in Friday’s fight between Haney and Ramirez because there’s a lot on the line for this fight. There’s the rematch that the boxing world wants to see, and Turki has already got things planned for October. Historically, when big fights are over the horizon, the B-side fighter gets robbed.
You’d hate to see Haney gifted a decision, but it’s happened before in his fight against Vasily Lomachenko, and that was only two years ago. Ramirez is nowhere near as popular as Haney. So, if the rounds are close, it’s reasonable to assume they’ll be given to Haney.
“No, this fight [Ramirez] is at 144. We’re just working our way up to 147,” said Haney. “I came into this camp. I was small. My chef had to feed me up because I was so much in shape. I was disciplined over this past year. So, I feel good.”
As big as Haney has looked after rehydrating for his fights at 140, fighting 144 won’t be that much easier for him to make weight. He looked drained in his last two fights at the weigh-ins for his clashes against Ryan and Regis Prograis.
“Even Playing Field”
“We need a clean sport with everybody fighting on an even playing field. It needs to be fair,” said Haney. “My opponents, I want it to be the same thing. I’m the type of fighter, I can take an L, but let’s do it the right way. After the Ryan fight, before he failed the test, I said, ‘It is what it is.’ He won. I moved on. I took it.
“Then, when it came out [Ryan testing positive for a PED], then I had something to say. I just want it to be an even playing field. If you’re going to beat me, beat me on an even playing field. I don’t think nobody can do that on an even playing field,” said Haney, sounding like he’s still in denial about his loss to Garcia.
Haney was hurt at least that many times in the fight, and he hasn’t fought since. Fans believe he was afraid to fight for fear of getting beaten and watching his rematch chances against Garcia go up in smoke. Devin still needs to win, as Turki wasn’t just going to give him that straight rematch without him fighting. He’s got to earn it this Friday.
Devin’s punch resistance was never great to begin with, but it may have eroded after his three-knockdown loss to Ryan. He was actually down seven times in the fight, but the referee ruled the four other knockdowns slips.