Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney have agreed to fight next in boxing.
They fought one another two years ago at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, with Garcia seemingly excelling in the second half of the fight, canceling out Haney’s work in the first six rounds, dropping him in the seventh, 10th, and 11th, to score a majority decision win on the night.
It was not long before the victory was overturned to a No Contest, though, on account of Garcia testing positive for Ostarine the day before and the day of the fight.
Both fighters have rebounded with extraordinary wins from that moment, with Haney recovering sufficiently from the shellacking to score decision wins over Jose Ramirez and Brian Norman, establishing himself as one of the 10 best fighters in the entire sport, pound-for-pound.
Garcia has been more erratic, losing in lopsided fashion to Rolando Romero before a coming-of-age against Mario Barrios — a WBC welterweight world championship win in which he showed he could box, and that he had as great a secondary weapon in a right hand, as he had with his primary power punch, the left hook.
And now Haney and Garcia appear to be on a collision course once again.
“As a storyline it has the bad blood,” WBO welterweight champion Haney said on Saturday’s DAZN broadcast. “It’s a unification now, and it’s the biggest fight in boxing — the perfect fight to be made.”
Garcia responded on X. “I heard you speaking my name.”
“If this is what you want, let’s start the discussions.”
“Mark my words you’ll never fight again after this, so let that sink in and accept it before you say yes.”
Haney only had one demand at this point. Let’s start our VADA testing so we can make the biggest fight in boxing,” he told Garcia.
It’s the “fight of the summer,” according to Garcia.
Haney was speaking at the Emmanuel Navarrete vs Eduardo Nunez event in Glendale, Arizona, on DAZN. Navarrete gave Nunez a signature bludgeoning to unify the IBF and WBO super featherweight world titles. Victory advanced Navarrete to 40-2-1 (33 KOs) and only enhances his achievements in a sport that he has already forged such legacy already.
Earlier in the show, Emiliano Vargas retired Augustin Ezequiel Quintana in the ninth round.