Ryan Garcia contacts Team Haney for fight, Devin confirms

Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney both say their teams are talking for a fight in 2024.

Ryan Garcia appears to be trying to give boxing fans what they want, as he says his focus is now on making a fight with Devin Haney, not Rolly Romero.

After initially saying he wanted to fight WBA titleholder Romero first, then new WBC titlist Haney, Garcia took the question to fans on his X (Formerly Twitter) page a few days back.

It appears the majority of the response he heard was in favor of going after Haney first, and that Ryan is doing what he can to oblige.

“I’ve advised my team to contact [T]eam Haney to discuss and make the fight happen between Devin and I,” Garcia said on social media.

Haney was quick to legitimize Garcia’s claim, simply responding, “These are facts.”

“The ball is in your court, Devin, I’ve made my move and I’m showing you and the boxing community that I’m committed to this fight.”

Garcia (24-1, 20 KO) and Haney (31-0, 15 KO) are pretty much perfectly synced up to fight in terms of their schedules — Garcia stopped Oscar Duarte on Dec. 2, and Haney dominated Regis Prograis seven days later to take the WBC belt at 140 lbs.

Haney, 25, has been calling for a fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis, who beat Garcia in one of 2023’s biggest fights at a 136 lb catchweight, but it seems pretty clear that fight isn’t going to happen. Haney feels Davis doesn’t really want the fight, and there are many reasons it won’t go through.

Haney vs Garcia, then, becomes the biggest-money fight Devin can do. WBO titleholder Teofimo Lopez also has strong name value, but is with Top Rank and ESPN, while Haney and Garcia are with different promoters — Matchroom and Golden Boy, respectively — but promoters who share the same broadcast partner in DAZN.

Long story short, if Garcia could get Golden Boy to, eventually, “cross the street” with PBC and make a Davis fight this year, which involved Showtime and DAZN having to come to an agreement, too, then making a fight with Haney should be a piece of cake, relatively.