NEW YORK – Oscar De La Hoya is convinced oddsmakers are way off on how they’ve handicapped the
Devin Haney-Jose Ramirez fight.
“The Golden Boy” admits he is a little biased because his company promotes Ramirez.
De La Hoya still can’t comprehend how Haney is so heavily favored, 12-1 according to DraftKings, to beat
Ramirez in their 12-round welterweight fight Friday night at Times Square in Manhattan.
The former WBC/WBO 140-pound champion has lost only a pair of unanimous decisions in competitive fights with then-unbeaten Scottish southpaw Josh Taylor and undefeated Arnold Barboza Jr. Beyond Ramirez’s championship pedigree, De La Hoya isn’t sure
Haney is the same fighter he was before another Golden Boy-affiliated fighter, Ryan Garcia,
dropped him three times and beat Haney by majority decision last April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The retired six-division champion pointed out Haney “took a beating” against Garcia, whose win was changed to a no-contest because Garcia tested positive for ostarine, a substance banned by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.
“This fight with Devin and Ramirez, I think it’s a 50-50 fight,” De La Hoya told
The Ring. “And I would actually give the advantage to Ramirez, just for the fact that Devin is not all there after that devastating loss to Ryan Garcia. I don’t think he’s there. I do not think he’s all there.”
De La Hoya suspects getting dropped three times by Garcia has shaken Haney’s confidence. The Oakland native officially is unbeaten because of Garcia’s transgression, but according to De La Hoya, it’ll be difficult for Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) to forget what happened the last time he boxed beneath bright lights almost 54 weeks earlier.
Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) doesn’t punch as hard as Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC), who will battle Rolando “Rolly” Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) in the main event of The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves” card Friday night. The Avenal, California native nevertheless figures he’ll feel fresher and stronger because he will compete as a full-fledged welterweight for the first time in his 12-year pro career.
The 2012 U.S. Olympian admitted he made a mistake by boxing within the junior welterweight division as long as he did. The 32-year-old Ramirez determined after a unanimous points loss to Barboza in their 10-round, 140-pound bout November 16 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that he had to move up to welterweight for his following fight.
In addition to his loss to
Barboza, Ramirez is motivated by what he considers a lack of respect from pundits, fans and obviously oddsmakers. Ramirez can also prevent a Garcia-Haney rematch from happening by upsetting Haney in
DAZN Pay-Per-View’s co-feature Friday night.
Haney-Ramirez, Garcia-Romero and Teofimo Lopez-Barboza are three of the four fights scheduled to be contested within an iconic outdoor environment in midtown Manhattan. The Brooklyn-born Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) is set to defend his Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles against Barboza (32-0, 11 KOs), an El Monte, California native who is ranked third among The Ring’s 140-pound contenders for one of Lopez’s championships.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.