Terence Crawford has offered his thoughts on the bitter rivalry between Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, reflecting on the controversy surrounding their first professional encounter.
The pair squared off on six occasions as amateurs, with the score reading 3-3 ahead of their 12-round pro contest in April 2024.
Back then, Haney entered their showdown as the WBC super-lightweight champion, and a sizable favourite, but ultimately suffered three knockdowns before losing a majority decision.
Garcia, meanwhile, was not entitled to win the world title after tipping the scales at just over 143lbs, but nonetheless succeeded in pulling off a considerable upset.
His victory was then overturned to a no-contest after it emerged that ‘King Ry’ had tested positive for ostarine, a banned substance, for which he was handed a year-long ban by the New York State Athletic Commission.
Since then, though, Garcia and Haney have both become world champions at 147lbs by dethroning Mario Barrios and Brian Norman Jr, respectively.
It would therefore seem that the two Americans have embarked on another collision course, leading them towards an expected rematch and potential unification clash.
Speaking to Joe Rogan, Crawford refrained from offering a prediction and instead highlighted the familiarity and controversy attached to their possible sequel.
“They know each other far too well. I think [Garcia] and Devin fought each other the most [as amateurs] out of all of them.
“But I just think him and Devin – the history of it… Devin came in there over-confident; Ryan being juiced up added a little [controversy].
“You can’t take away from him landing the punches he was landing; you can’t take away from the performance… But, when you’re on steroids, that adds [an element of doubt].”
Haney dropped and outpointed Norman for his WBO strap in November, while Garcia’s WBC title triumph over Barrios told a similar story last month. It is believed that a rematch will be put on ice for the time being, with Haney targeting another of the division’s champions in Rolando Romero this May and Garcia expected to fight around a similar time.
