Ryan Garcia is ready to break the tie with his longtime rival.
As BoxingScene.com previously reported, terms were reached for Garcia to challenge two-division and reigning WBC 140-pound titlist Devin Haney. Their bout will headline an April 20 DAZN Pay-Per-View event from a Las Vegas venue to be determined.
The two have amateur history. They fought six times in the amateurs, with three wins apiece.
“Game 7, this one is for everything,” Garcia posted Friday on his verified social media accounts. “It counts now, Devin.”
Garcia (24-1, 20KOs) will contend for his first major title. The 25-year-old from Victorville, California previously held the interim WBC lightweight title, at a time when Las Vegas’ Haney (31-0, 15KOs) held the full version of the title. Haney pushed the WBC for a title consolidation bout in 2021, only for Garcia to not fight for the rest of the year.
Most of their time since then has been spent circling one another, though Haney has emerged as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters. He fully unified the lightweight division at just age 23 and won his second divisional title when he dethroned WBC 140-pound titlist Regis Prograis via twelve-round shutout last December 9 in San Francisco, California.
Garcia returned to the win column one week prior with an eighth-round knockout of Mexico’s Oscar Duarte last December 2 in Houston, Texas. It came more than seven months after his seventh-round knockout defeat to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (29-0, 27KOs) last April 22 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Exactly 52 weeks to the day of his lone defeat, Garcia will now seek by far his biggest win to date. He plans to do so in emphatic fashion.
“This fight for me means everything,” insisted Garcia. “This is what I meant when I spoke on the PBD podcast—”I’m coming back for everything in Blood.”
“I ask you guys to pray for Devin and his health. Pray his dad stops this fight. He will be needed to be carried out if this fight doesn’t get stopped at the appropriate time.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox