Ryan can cry about the change of venue: Haney
New York: It didn’t take long for Ryan Garcia to complain about the venue for his fight against unbeaten World Boxing Council junior welterweight champion Devin Haney.
The 25-year-old will challenge for his first world title when he meets Las Vegas-based Haney, also 25, at Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York, on April 20.
Garcia wanted the fight to take place in Las Vegas.
“This is a MGM Vegas fight, doing everything we can to bring this to Vegas and giving this fight what it deserves,” Garcia posted to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “This decision has nothing to do with NYC but everything to do with business and what I believe is the best move for my career.”
But Haney was much more pragmatic about moving the fight to the east coast.
“Canelo is fighting two weeks after us, on May 4,” Haney explained to The MMA Hour.
“(Broadcaster DAZN) did not want us fighting on Canelo’s date, messing up his gate.
“Big events like this do not happen like that when it is back-toback, especially in boxing, so that is when New York came up. I heard about it the night before (the announcement) and I said I was all for it, and then it was announced. “The best next spot was New York. I agreed to go there and I love New York. It is the media capital of the world, (so) we will get so many eyeballs and so much promotion. I love it.” Haney was blunt when asked what he thought about Garcia’s recent comments.
“Queen Ryan doesn’t like it, but he can go and cry about it,” he said. “We signed a contract, it is here and this is where it will be.”