Bill Haney is confident that a rematch between Devin and Ryan Garcia will still happen despite them giving up the lawsuit they have for his positive PED test for the banned substance Ostarine from their fight eight months ago on April 20th.
The People Decide
According to Bill, the people will decide if there’s a Devin vs. Garcia rematch, and they want to see it. So, if they want to see it, the networks will make it happen. The lawsuit stands. They won’t be dropping that.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) seems interested in a rematch and frequently jokes about wanting to knock Haney down more with his left hook. The only thing that might get in the way of a second fight is if Devin fights someone else.
Bill feels Devin has proven himself a world champion and can fight anyone he wants. However, he hasn’t done that since losing to Garcia, which suggests he’s waiting for his one-year suspension to end in April 2025, hoping to get a rematch.
Bill is coy about his desire for the second fight to happen immediately, but he’s easy to read. You can tell from how he talks that the Garcia rematch is the ONLY fight he and Devin want.
“Devin is a champion. Ryan Garcia is not. Oscar De La Hoya hasn’t been able to make a champion out of Ryan Garcia,” said Bill Haney to Fight Hub TV when asked if the lawsuit they have out on Ryan will impact their ability to get a rematch.
“Devin wants to fight whoever the people want to see, but he wants it to be on a level playing field. We do it for the people. They’re the ones that pay the bills, not the promoters,” said Bill about why they would want a rematch with Ryan.
“If the fans want to see a fight, then there’s a network that wants to put it on. The days of Oscar De La Hoya saying what he wants is over with. He said there’s no need for a rematch, but that’s him not listening to the people. That’s him creating fake narratives as if the people aren’t calling for it,” said Bill.
Garcia’s Win Dismissed
It’s a mistake for Haney to sit out of the ring with Ryan without fighting anyone and for his dad, Bill, to talk frequently about the positive test. If Bill believes that by mentioning it he’s erasing the memory fans have of Devin losing, he’s wasting his time.
The New York State Athletic Commission erased Haney’s loss to Garcia, changing it to a no-contest because of his positive test for Ostarine. But Bill can’t erase the image of Ryan defeating his son from the fans’ memories by mentioning positive tests 24/7. That’s not going to work. He can’t whitewash what happened by constantly dredging it in each interview and mentioning it on social media.
That just makes Bill and Devin seem like sore losers because fans don’t believe that Ryan won because of Ostarine. They just think Haney has a glass chin, can’t punch, and was never that good in the first place.
“The biggest thing is drug testing,” said Bill when asked if deciding what weight would be the biggest thing that would need to be decided for a rematch between Devin and Ryan. “He said he was crazy. So, if you were crazy enough to do it the first time, then you’ll be crazy enough to do it a second time. That’s the stickler, that he enrolls in a [drug testing] program.
“You put something on the table where you would be the A-side and we would be the B-side would be an insult. They knew that it was an insult,” said Bill Haney about Bob Arum making an offer for Devin to fight Teofimo Lopez.
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