Devin Haney was knocked down a peg by Ryan Garcia last Saturday night with his defeat in New York. Haney’s reign at the top of the sport came down with his 12-round majority decision loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The defeat was like watching a house of cards collapse, revealing that Haney was never as good as fans had thought, and it’s going to be difficult for daddy dearest, Bill Haney to rebuild him.
Afterward, fans connected the dots, realizing why Haney had fled the lightweight division, and chose Regis Prograis over Subriel Matias.
The Exposed Emperor
Garcia put some reality into Haney’s former unbeaten record, and it wasn’t pretty to watch seeking him get exposed. Ryan beat WBC light welterweight champion Haney (31-1, 15 KOs) by a 12-round majority decision, and showed that he wasn’t what some fans had thought.
Haney had been carrying himself like he was royalty before the fight, but Ryan showed that he wasn’t for real. Despite the close scores, the fight was not close at all. Ryan dominated the contest, revealing that Haney wasn’t the fighter that fans had thought.
If Haney is going to get that Tank payday, Bill is going to have to work extra hard to repackage him. That’s going to require soft match-making or at least the return to putting him in with older, smaller fighters.
A History of Handpicked Wins
– Vasily Lomachenko: Older and smaller. Also, the win for Haney was controversial.
– Regis Prograis: Another older fighter at 35, who was exposed in the previous fight.
– Jorge Linares: 34 and fighting in his third weight class
– Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz: Out-sized by Haney at lightweight. This was not a fair fight.
– George Kambosos Jr: One-hit wonder. A fighter whose only notable win came against Teofimo Lopez.
– Yuriorkis Gamboa: 40 years old fighting two divisions above his best weight class.
– Zaur Abdullaev: An obscure fighter who has never beaten anyone of note.
It’s going to be interesting to see if the former undisputed lightweight champion, Haney, can recover from this loss. You can’t overlook Devin’s dad, Bill’s ability to select the right opponents for his son to beat, but it’s going to be more difficult to trick the fans this time than it was before. They know they were tricked last time, and they’re not going to be so easily fooled.
