Signing to fight each other was a significant first step, but now it's time for Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia to deliver in the ring when they meet on April 20 in Las Vegas for Haney's WBC super lightweight title. Lupe Valencia, Garcia's adviser, told KevinIole.com the fight has been signed, confirming an ESPN report.
Haney and Garcia are two of the boxers who have actively been seeking out the toughest, and most high-profile matches. So many boxers, or their representatives, make excuses for why they can't make a specific bout the fans want to see, but Haney and Garcia have been among the few who have put their money where their mouth is, as well.
Both are highly gifted fighters, though Haney is clearly the more accomplished in the ring. While the trend toward letting the high-profile matches fans want marinate, for years, in some cases, is beginning to diminish, we've yet in this decade to get one of those true classics in the mold of a Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran I or Leonard-Thomas Hearns I in one of them.
What made boxing so great in the 1980s was not only did the best fight the best on the regular, the matches were often epic.
The 80s is the decade that brought us these memorable bouts:
• Marvelous Marvin Hagler versus Hearns.
• Alexis Arguello versus Aaron Pryor, twice.
• Leonard versus Hearns I.
• Leonard versus Duran I.
• Duran versus Iran Barkley.
• Bobby Chacon versus Bazooka Limon IV.
• Evander Holyfield versus Michael Dokes.
• Wilfredo Gomez versus Lupe Pintor.
• Salvador Sanchez versus Gomez.
• Hagler versus John Mugabi.
• Chacon versus Cornelius Boza-Edwards I and II.
• Larry Holmes versus Gerry Cooney.
Those were all matches -- and there were dozens more like them -- that featured elite talents raising their games and putting on all-time classics.
April 20th - Game 7 - Back In Blood 🩸 pic.twitter.com/8rddlVulud
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) February 9, 2024
In the 2020s, that's largely not happening. Terence Crawford was already considered the best fighter in the world when he faced Errol Spence on July 29 in Las Vegas. Crawford substantially raised his game, but Spence did not, and the result was a one-sided KO in Crawford's favor. It's been like that in so many of the huge events we've gotten recently.
Boxing sits in a precarious position. It has more competition than it ever did, and many forever predict its doom, but it always manages to hang around and get through the crisis of the day.
It does that with memorable bouts, and the Haney-Garcia fight has that potential. Haney is vastly improving even though he's already at the top, a sign he takes his craft seriously. He's 31-0 with 15 KOs and probably gave his career-best performance in his last outing, when he thrashed Regis Prograis on Dec. 9 in San Francisco to lift the WBC super lightweight title from Prograis.
Haney is both fast and quick, with good feet, defensive awareness and a full arsenal of punches. He was far better offensively against Prograis than he's been in a while, which suggests his complaints that he was having trouble making 135 pounds is legitimate.
He's going to be a lot for Garcia to handle, who almost single-handedly willed a bout against Gervonta Davis into existence last year. But once the fight was made, Garcia basically didn't show up and did little until Davis put him to sleep.
Garcia has all the physical tools to be a superstar, but he's yet to put it together in a big fight the way that Haney did against Prograis. He's lightning quick and hits extremely hard, especially to the body, and when he's on top of his game, has a great awareness of how to control his distance.
If he lays a dud against Haney, then he's going to be dismissed as a popular pretty boy who never lived up to the billing. I think he's capable of fighting at the highest level and performing, but he needs to turn performance into potential.
Kudos to both of them for getting this signed. They have a natural rivalry and they've long eyeballed each other as pros. Now, they'll meet in the ring with significant stakes.
It doesn't get better than that, but they have to deliver to make it matter.
The pressure is now on.