Devin Haney has captured world titles in two weight classes by age 25, but few fans are impressed with what he’s accomplished during his nine-year career.
The Garcia Debacle: A Career-Altering Loss
Haney stepped up for the first time last month against Ryan Garcia on April 20th, and he was out of his league. He was dropped six times and lost a 12-round decision. Fans were left wondering what they had ever seen in Haney.
His reputation has nosedived since, and it’s difficult for fans to view him still as a world champion. The WBC allowed Haney to keep his light welterweight title despite losing.
That performance had a devasting effect on Haney’s career, resulting in fans no longer viewing him as the #1 fighter in the 140-lb division and feeling that they’d been wrong about their previously high appraisal of him after his win against Regis Prograis last December.
Before Haney’s loss to Ryan, some fans thought he’d beaten the best fighter in the weight class when he defeated the 35-year-old Prograis. I didn’t feel that way.
Watching Prograis lose to Josh Taylor in 2019 showed that he was flawed from the start. That fight showed all I needed to know about Prograis because Tyalor was always an average fighter.
That’s Why Nobody Wants The Rematch
Fans should want to see a rematch, but they don’t have faith in Haney that he can raise his game enough to avenge his loss to Ryan (25-1, 20 KOs).
The fans saw all they needed to, watching Ryan put Haney in trouble in the opening seconds of round one and continuing to batter him for the remainder of the fight.
In the seventh, Haney was knocked down four times and seemingly saved by the referee, Harvey Dock, who inexplicably penalized Ryan for hitting on the break after he grew frustrated at the nonstop holding that was being done.
Devin was trying to stall out the round after the first knockdown, and Ryan got fed up with being held excessively and instinctively hit Haney when the referee peeled him off. No warning had been given to Ryan before the penalization.
Many fans consider Haney the weakest of the four champions at 140 because of his questionable chin and his fighting style, which involves a lot of clinching, jabbing, and moving around the ring.
The other champions at 140
– Teofimo Lopez
– Subriel Matias
– Isaac Cruz
Haney would lose to all those champions and likely get knocked out if he couldn’t clinch excessively once he was hurt, as we saw in his fight with Ryan.
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