By: Sean Crose
He looked magnificent against Brian Norman last weekend, so magnificent that he walked out of the ring in Saudi Arabia with his third world title in his possession. No small thing. For Devin Haney was considered by some to be on the downside of his career, or at least in a major slump. Haney proved all the naysayers wrong at the very least. Haney didn’t just beat Norman after all, he actually had the man on the canvas. Haney isn’t known as a power puncher, but you wouldn’t have known that just by watching the guy operate last weekend.
The question now is what will the new welterweight champion do next? There’s a lot of good competition in and around Haney’s weight realm, but it’s hard to imagine him not wanting a piece of Ryan Garcia after their first fight ended in a highly controversial no contest decision once it became public that Garcia had fought with a banned substance in his system. Although Haney was allowed to continue after that bout to have an undefeated record, Garcia had frankly given Haney quite a beating during the fight. Not surprisingly, Garcia has expressed interest in fighting Haney again since he blew out Norman last Saturday.
The truth is a rematch between Haney and Garcia would bring in a lot of eyeballs and no doubt a lot of money. There’s an air of unfinished business around each man so it would only make sense for a rematch to come down the pipe. The problem of course is that this is boxing and things that make sense are generally ignored.
Provided the fight does come to fruition however, the question remains: who will actually win? Will it be a replay the first fight? If that’s the case, it will do much for Garcia’s reputation. If Haney gives Garcia a run for his money, the PED arguments will once again play out regarding Garcia’s real skill set. And of course if Haney knocks Garcia out or stops him early or blows him out of the water, then it would be obvious. – or at least it might be obvious – that Garcia wasn’t really able to perform well the first time he faced Haney in the ring without the help of a banned substance.
The reality is that the only answer to the question of how a rematch between Haney and Garcia will play out is for it to actually play out. Until or if that happens, everything else is speculation..
