Devin Haney’s father/trainer, Bill Haney, is still worked-up over Ryan Garcia’s positive tests for the PED, Ostarine, for his victory last April in Brooklyn.
Bill wants everyone to know about Ryan’s positive tests because he feels his actions hurt the sport. Ryan (25-1, 20 KOs) dominated WBC light welterweight champion Haney (31-1, 15 KOs), knocking him down three times in a twelve-round majority decision victor.
Papa Haney’s attempts at whitewashing Devin’s loss by the constant mentioning of Ryan Garcia’s positive PED tests have spectacularly failed to change the perception of the boxing public on social media.
It’s worked against Haney, as people are rallying around Ryan and viewing Bill’s constant harping about his positive tests as a campaign to artificially cleanse his record and keep him on a path to becoming a PPV superstar.
Unfortunately for Bill, fans continue to view Devin’s defeat as a case of Ryan being too powerful and fast for him. It doesn’t matter what Bill says about the PED tests; the fans can’t forget what they saw the night with Haney getting dropped seven times and the referee arguably saving Dev in the seventh round by counting only one of the knockdowns and giving Ryan a point deduction without a prior warning.
“We have to bring attention to this. This pushes boxing back to the horse & buggy days,” said Bill Haney to Fight Hub TV, talking about Ryan Garcia’s positive tests for the PED Ostarine last April after wiping out Devin Haney.
If Bill wants to change the boxing public’s opinion about Devin, he needs to work at setting up a rematch with Ryan and let his son avenge the loss. It’s not going to work for Bill to make fans believe Ryan is a druggy and that his victory over Devin was 100% the result of his positive test for Ostarine.
The way Ryan fought that night, he likely would have done the same thing even if he had tested clean. Haney’s bad habit of excessive clinching worked against him, as he was in the line of fire for Ryan’s bread-and-butter punch, his short left hook.
Haney should have known that going into the fight, he couldn’t afford to use his chronic holding against Ryan because it would put him within the range of his left hook. That was his mistake.
“The world will get to see that we’re unwavered behind this cheating scandal. Ryan never showed that he wanted to be respectful to the sport. There were a lot of telltale signs,” said Bill.
“We ignored them for the better of the sport to continue to push it forward. For him to come back hot [positive for Ostarine], that was uncalled for. He did so many things that exemplify a person that’s not serious about the sport,” said Bill.
If Bill knew anything about fans, he would stop making a big production about Ryan’s positive PED tests and focus on trying to set up a rematch with him because that’s the ONLY chance Haney is changing people’s minds.
Bill can’t change anything by quibbling about Ryan’s PED tests because the fans aren’t paying attention to him. They watched the fight, and they didn’t listen to Bill standing on his soapbox giving speeches, trying to change people’s perceptions. That’s a useless strategy.
“Whoever he’s going to fight, they’re going to be clean, and I’m going to see to it,” said Bill when asked if his son, Devin, will be defending his WBC light welterweight title against his mandatory Sandor Martin next. “I’m going to make sure that he’s in with clean athletes from here on out.”
Interestingly, Bill isn’t willing to say that Devin will defend against his WBC mandatory Sandor Martin next, which means he’s thinking of maneuvering around that fight for some reason.
Bill can only do that by having Devin vacate his WBC title or paying Sandor a step aside. It might be better for Haney to avoid Sandor because he might lose that fight, and if that happens, his popularity, such as it is, will drop to the point where he’ll be back to where he won’t be able to peddle his fights on PPV.
I don’t know that Haney can beat Sandor Martin because the Spaniard has a tricky right hook that put Teofimo Lopez down twice in their fight in 2022, and he arguably beat him. If Sandor could put Teofimo down twice, what can he do to Haney?
“Anytime there’s a punishment, there’s a crime. We’ll deal with that when the time comes, but right now, he’s guilty, guilty, guilty, and he’ll feel it,” said Bill when asked about what punishment Ryan Garcia will receive for his positive PED tests.
It’s possible that Ryan will get a short ban from the New York Commission and will be back in the ring in December or early 2025. This isn’t going to hurt his career because he won the fight against Haney and looked like gold.
“There’s been more excuses than Confucious. I’m tired of hearing it. He’s going to feel it, for sure,” said Bill about Ryan.
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