The 26-year-old star will look to bounce back from what some fear could be a career-defining loss.
Having defended his world title for the first time in 2019, Devin Haney is certainly no stranger to the bright lights or big pressure.
However, in his last outing, ‘The Dream’ suffered one of the most high-profile losses in recent times when he was convincingly beaten by Ryan Garcia.
The outcome of the fight was overturned to a no contest following a positive drug test result with a potential rematch between Haney and Garcia encountering some stumbling blocks.
Both men are now set to share the same card on May 2 when Haney and Garcia compete in New York’s iconic Times Square.
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Oscar De La Hoya questions whether Devin Haney will ever recover from Ryan Garcia beatdown
Devin Haney has a lot of questions to answer when he makes his return against the 32-year-old Jose ‘Jaguar’ Ramirez.
With Ryan Garcia featuring in the main event against Rolando Romero, Haney isn’t going to be able to get away from his last defeat despite taking a full year off.
If the fight starts to become difficult at any point, we’re going to find out whether Haney’s physical or mental ability to weather adversity has been permanently effected.
The fight may have been ruled a no contest but he was dropped 3 times over the 12 rounds with two of the scorecards being widely in Garcia’s favor.
In a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, Oscar De La Hoya, who represents Garcia via Golden Boy Promotions, spoke about the narratives heading into Haney’s return.
“Is he going to react differently than before he fought Ryan or after he fought Ryan? So the psyche is just going to be interesting, to see how when he gets hit, how he gets hit, how he recovers or maybe he doesn’t recover.”
De La Hoya raised the point that being stunned in a fight is one thing but to be dropped multiple times in a decisive loss is another.
“There’s a big difference with that so I’ve never had that situation done to me, maybe (Manny) Pacquiao kind of but it was my last fight. You don’t recover from that. It’s just impossible, it’s hard.”
Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia went back-and-forth at the press conference
Unsurprisingly, the conversation that dominated the recent press conference for “Fatal Fury In Times Square” was Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney being on stage together once again.
Whilst Haney continued to dismiss the result by saying that his opponent cheated, Garcia claims that this doesn’t take away from his performance on the night.
Their next bouts pose huge questions to both of them in that regard because the result of their 2024 bout was so shocking.
If Garcia and Haney get their hands raised on May 2, a rematch later this year will undoubtedly be one of the biggest fights of 2025.