Devin Haney was supposed to face
Ryan Garcia in a rematch, and not WBO welterweight champion
Brian Norman Jr. on November 22.
But Garcia couldn’t hold up to his end of the bargain when he got dropped and
suffered a unanimous decision loss to Rolando Romero in May. On the same night of The Ring’s “Fatal Fury” card in New York’s Times Square, Haney scored a
lackluster unanimous decision win against Jose Ramirez.
While Haney has a return date, Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) is sidelined seeking his, which
could likely come early next year against WBC welterweight champion
Mario Barrios.
In the meantime, Garcia will be watching Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) and Norman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC) square off as part of the "The Ring IV: Night of the Champions" card in Saudi Arabia on
DAZN PPV (UK: £24.99; US: $59.99).
“I’m confident Devin Haney wins,” Garcia wrote on social media. “The reasoning is simply experience, and I feel Haney will figure it out. It’s not about speed or power in this. I think Devin just frustrates Norman, but Norman can very much prove me wrong. We will see.”
Garcia is not the only one unsure of the final result. According to DraftKings, Norman is a minus-135 betting favorite and the former two-division champion Haney is a slight underdog at plus-110.
Should Garcia end up beating Barrios, he’d certainly be intrigued in a title unification fight against the Norman-Haney winner.
Garcia was also interested in keeping busy and stepping in for Gervonta Davis as a late-replacement opponent for Jake Paul this week, but
promoter Oscar De La Hoya stiff-armed the suggestion.
“It is not my fault that I couldn’t fight Jake Paul,” said Garcia. “I would’ve ran that with him and then had a real fight in February. I’ve been preparing myself for a while now, all good though. Those who have bad intentions never win in the end.”
Manouk Akopyan is The Ring's lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.