Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia have transformed years of talk into a budding superfight.
Boxing Scene has confirmed that a deal was reached for the pair of young stars to meet atop an April 20 DAZN pay-per-view event. Both sides acknowledged to Boxing Scene that advanced talks rapidly progressed to agreed terms, in line with breaking news reports from Daily Star’s Chris McKenna and ESPN’s Mike Coppinger of the bout’s status.
Haney will defend his WBC junior welterweight title versus Garcia at a location to be determined in Las Vegas.
The development concludes a matchup more than three years in the making, when Garcia (24-1, 20KOs) held an interim version of the WBC lightweight title owned at the time by Haney (31-0, 15KOs). Both fighters went in separate directions but have still emerged as two of the biggest stars in the sport at just 25 years of age.
Talks were reignited last December after both posted wins one week apart.
Garcia scored an eighth-round knockout of Mexico’s Oscar Duarte last December 2 in Houston, Texas. The feat put him back in the win column after a seventh-round knockout defeat to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (29-0, 27KOs) in their non-title fight last April 22 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Davis-Garcia became the highest-grossing boxing event of 2023, though Garcia has used that opportunity to reshape his own career and become a star on his own merit.
Those changes included a trainer switch to Derrick James, with the win over Duarte marking their first official fight together.
Las Vegas’ Haney became a two-division titlist one week after Garcia’s win, when he soundly outpointed Regis Prograis to win the WBC 140-pound title. The bout headlined a December 9 DAZN Pay-Per-View from Chase Center in his birth town of. San Francisco, California.
It marked the official end to Haney’s undisputed lightweight championship, as he vacated all the belts prior to the bout. Haney held the WBC lightweight title since October 2019 and made seven successful defenses.
Three came in undisputed championship meetings. Haney claimed back-to-back wins over George Kambosos (21-2. 10KOs) to fully unify and subsequently defend in their pair of 2022 bouts in Melbourne, Australia. He then followed with a 12-round decision over former three-division titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko (17-3, 11KOs) last May 20 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Talks between Haney and Garcia were previously brief. Garcia abandoned negotiations with WBA 140-pound titlist Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero to pursue Haney’s WBC title before he abruptly ended broke off in January to revisit a potential Romero clash on the reserved April 20 date.
Garcia was led to believe that a fight with Romero was close, only to learn through the media that Romero would instead face Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz as part of a March 30 Amazon Prime PPV event in Las Vegas.
From there, Haney and Garcia picked up where they previously left off. Massive progress was made despite red herrings through social media from both boxers and Garcia’s Hall of Fame promoter Oscar De La Hoya.
Terms were officially reached overnight, with a formal announcement expected in the coming days if not before close of business.
By Jake Donovan