For as long as Ryan Garcia has been a professional, he's made a point of seeking out the best opposition possible. The bout with Gervonta Davis last year, which is reported to have sold 1.2 million pay-per-view units, would not have happened without Garcia's insistence.
Garcia didn't perform particularly well in that bout, but he remained a big name in the division in part because of what he helped to sell in the Davis fight and in part because he insisted he'd build himself back up to the top. His actions in landing the Davis fight made people believe him.
He's used his bully pulpit -- 10.3 million followers on Instagram, 5.7 million followers on TikTok and 305,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) -- to make himself a major force in the super lightweight division. On Dec. 28, a couple of weeks after he defeated Oscar Duarte, Garcia tweeted to Romero that he was in talks to make a Haney fight.
His promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, confirmed he had spoken to Haney's representatives about a Garcia-Haney fight for early 2024.
I’m sorry Rollies you and your team work way to slow and you were way to indecisive 🤷♂️ i didn’t know if you wanted to box or vacation.
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) December 28, 2023
Devin Haney and I are in negotiations respect that. I’m not entertaining anything. Thanks
But what this episode teaches is that you should believe what they do, and not what they say, because they'll say anything. And what Garcia did is in less than two weeks pivot 180 degrees away from Haney, the WBC super lightweight champion, and back to Romero.
Haney is one of the pound-for-pound best in the world and had a strong argument to be named 2023 Fighter of the Year. Romero has been largely inactive and fought only once in 2022 and once in 2023. In 2022, he was knocked out by Davis. In 2023, he stopped 40-year-old Ismael Barroso via highly questionable stoppage in a fight he was clearly losing.
The key to this, though, is that Garcia has developed a relationship with the legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather. Garcia on Jan. 4 posted a comment about himself and Mayweather on X and defended Mayweather against attacks from others.
Floyd is mentoring me, And I love and respect him, he is so authentic so stop judging him. Judging a book by its cover will stop you from reading but Derrick James is my coach, and I love him to.
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) January 5, 2024
Two days after that post, Garcia suddenly switched from negotiating with Haney for a fight to saying he was facing Romero. It's not too tough to connect the dots, since Romero is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Haney is promoted by Matchroom Sport.
It was a bold step for Garcia to call out Davis and then insist upon him even as others suggested taking a lesser opponent first. Garcia, though, repeatedly said he was all about making the biggest fights possible, so he publicly pursued a bout with Haney. There is no way on God's green Earth that a bout between Garcia and Romero is as lucrative as a bout between Garcia and Haney.
Haney hasn't been a huge seller in the past and his pay demands are absurdly high, making it difficult to put fights together. But Haney has done nothing but seek out the best. He went to Australia, twice, to face George Kambosos Jr., in lightweight title fights, then took on the great Vasiliy Lomachenko in his second defense of the belt. When he outgrew lightweight, he faced the highly regarded Regis Prograis and absolutely annhilated Prograis to win the 140-pound belt.
Romero is a much more winnable fight for Garcia than Haney, and the thinking could be to get Garcia a win before throwing him in the deep water again.
Haney, though, rightly felt jerked around and let Garcia know it on social media.
Don’t ever mention my name pussy boi.. https://t.co/5YQe6Chf6l
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) January 6, 2024
On no planet is Romero versus Garcia a bigger fight. Romero could, and maybe should, be going into the bout off of back-to-back losses. There is no harm and no shame in losing to Davis, but he looked dreadful in the Barroso fight. There is no other way to put it.
Garcia has been sidelined for long periods of time in his career by mental health issues, which are serious and not a joking matter. He posted on social media this week that he's getting divorced and has abruptly switched from Haney to Romero. There is a lot going on in his life.
He's a highly talented fighter who hasn't fully made his mark on the business yet, despite the business success of the bout with Davis. He clearly wasn't ready for the likes of Davis, and that's a good explanation for why he's not facing Haney.
The pro-Romero crowd will deride Haney as a poor draw; Gennadiy Golovkin took the same kind of heat. But though he sold only 130,000 pay-per-views against Daniel Jacobs, both of his first two fights against Canelo Alvarez did well over a million sales.
Haney is like Golovkin in that he's not going to sell PPVs on his own against just anyone. But put him in a big fight against a Davis or a Garcia and yes, he'll sell. There have been numerous fighters like that in pay-per-view history.
Garcia doesn't deserve to be ripped for choosing Romero over Haney. If Garcia is at his best, he should handle Romero, but Romero can punch and it should be a competitive fight. It's not like it's a blowout.
It's just disappointing to see him run the fans through the wringer via social media. It's hard to know what to believe and what not.
I would have preferred the Haney fight next over the Romero fight, but I understand the rationale for Romero (especially since Garcia is now calling Mayweather his mentor). But not all business has to be carried out in public. It's wise to negotiate behind closed doors and then take to social media when it's done.
Hopefully, Garcia will meet Haney, as well as Teofimo Lopez at some point in the future. Just be wary, though, if he says he's going to face either of them.
Watch what he does and not what he says.