WEATHER FORECAST
Unbeaten Haney can follow Floyd as an American icon
DEVIN HANEY may have fallen out with Floyd Mayweather but he is yet another fighter looking to recapture the hold the former pound-for-pound king had on the sport.
America’s quest to find the next big superstar in boxing who crosses over into the mainstream goes on. Unbeaten Haney possesses the ability and lavish lifestyle to go as closely matched to Mayweather as anyone since he retired, having shown his class in becoming undisputed champion at lightweight.
The duo have let their relationship blow up publicly, with Mayweather now closer aligned to another protege in Gervonta Davis.
But this weekend, when Haney travels to Brooklyn to take on Ryan Garcia in a WBC lightwelterweight title defence, it will be a chance for him to try to take another step in the shoes that were once filled by his former tutor.
That’s the same Garcia who was brutally dispatched by Davis in seven rounds but helped bring in 1.2m pay-per-view buys in the US. Only Mexican Canelo Alvarez has bettered such a number, when he took on Gennady Golovkin in 2017, since Mayweather walked away.
Boxing in the US has been crying out for the next mainstream star since the brash American brought 4.3m US buys to watch him make a clown out of Conor McGregor in August 2017.
‘Money’ by name, money by nature and all that. It was his second-highest draw after the Manny Pacquiao blockbuster in 2015 captured 4.6m.
Yet the US can’t seem to find a successor who can draw eyes away from the NBA, NFL and NHL momentarily like Mayweather could.
Garcia has a YouTube following bigger than most actual fighters if you don’t count the clowns who were social media stars first and now claim to be boxers.
But given his worrying antics online in the build-up to this Haney showdown, he’s losing supporters.
Californian Haney, at 25, and Baltimore boy Davis, at 29, will know that Mayweather was 30 when he took the pay-per-view king crown from Oscar de la Hoya and dropped the ‘Pretty Boy’ moniker for ‘Money.’
So time is yet on their side but it remains to be seen if America can be captivated by another boxing icon again.