Well, it's my pleasure to be joined on our podcast once again. Now.
I used to call you the lightweight champ. Now, Devin Haney,
I got to call you the WBC junior about the way champion. We're here
to talk about You're a very big fight you have coming up April twentieth,
the Zone Paint Review at Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York, against Ryan
Garcia. Devin, thank you very much for doing this. Have you been
yes, sir, thank you, thank you for having me. I've been
good. I'm excited for the fight, you know, another fight at one
forty where I'm much more comfortable, much more stronger, and I look forward
to it. All right, So before we get into the conversation about that
fight that you have coming up, I want to ask you. I was
looking at you at your box wreck in terms of what you've done in your
career as a lightweight, and I think it kind of gets like downgraded by
some people, and I can't really figure that out. I look at I
see you were the first undisputed lightweight champion since the legendary Parnell Whitaker did it
in nineteen ninety. You're the first ever four belt undisputed champion in the lightweight
division. Overall, you made seven title defenses, including two of the undisputed
crown, and you beat you know, good name guys like Gamboa, Lenaris,
Jojo Diaz, You beat Cambosas twice in Australia, then you beat Lomachenko.
What do you when you think when I you hear all that stuff,
I just said, what do you think is your lightweight legacy? No?
I mean, I'm that all makes you smile just hearing it, because you
know I worked hard to make the best fights happen. You know, I've
always said I wanted to the best fighters in the world, and you know,
if my resume chose yeah, I mean it's I mean I think if
you if if they had been willing to fight you, you you probably you
would have definitely fought a Tank Davis, Tifi, Ma Lopez, you know
the other you know good names that are in that weight class. I can't
imagine you wouldn't have seen the type of guys that you were willing to step
in with. Am I wrong about that? No? One hundred percent.
Every guy that I called out that that's that I stepped up. You know,
the fight has been made. But all that here and there, and
now you know Ryan Garcia has stepped up to the play and that's the fight
now. So after you left behind the lightweight division and you went up in
December to move into the junior wealthweight division and you fought for the WBC title,
Devin, you didn't just beat regist Progra you and take the title.
You dropped him, You shut him out. It was one hundred and twenty
two, one hundred and seven on all three scorecards. Now, I know
that you were very confident in winning that fight, and program sounded confident that
he was going to win the fight also, but there wasn't even really any
rounds that were close. Did you even in your mind, in your best
imagination to think that you'd be I'm not going to say it was easy,
but did you would make it look that easy? Vietnam? That was that
was you know, the game plan to go in there, to execute to
handicaplan and make it as easy as possible. So I did if I stepped
the game plan, and you know, I trusted the game plan that it
would work out, and it did. But Devin twelve to nothing, come
on, yeah, I mean that's that's what I do. That's what I
uh. I pitched shutouts, and you know, I go in there and
I'm taking away the guy's best thing that they that they do and once you
once you, once you do that, once you handicap them, they they
have no answers. I mean, that's that's a good point. That was.
I mean, you know, of all your fights that you've had,
as dominating as you were against Cambosis and some of the other fights you've had,
obviously Loma made it much closer. But I think am I wrong to
say that, at least to me looking at it, that's the best performance
you've ever had. Was because of the caliber of the opponent, the moving
up and wait uh winning a win. Another title was that? Is that
the best performance you've had so far? Do you think? Yeah? I
mean I think so. I think up to day for sure, that was
my best performance, especially because you know the fort the fight they were saying
that you know, Reges was was was number one guy in one forty.
Now you know they they act like he was just any any Joe blow They
said it was just you know, he was It was set up for me
to me, for me to go in there and do that. But at
a point he was the number one guy who a lot of guys were duck
and a lot of guys weren't didn't want to fight. So I went in
there, I think I went up to didn't you know take a tulip fighter
or anything like that, chose the best guy and uh pissed a shout out,
went in there and heard him, you know, beat him and and
now and so yeah, I definitely doubt that was my best performance. You're
only twenty five years old, and we just listed off all of the various
accomplishments that you have had in the kinds of opponents you have beaten. And
at twenty five, for a lot of fighters, they're not even in their
prime, or at least they're just entering their prime. Do you feel like
you're in your prime yet? Are you? Are you entering your prime?
I mean, and you've already you know, you've got thirty one fights,
so it's not like you're a young fighter in the game in terms of the
number of fights. But where do you where do you view yourself in terms
of the arc of your career? Yeah, I mean I'm still too you
know, young, still got a lot of growing a lot of mature to
do in a ring. I'm getting better and better at each fight, getting
stronger, getting more mature had the ring and in the ring, So I
don't think I'm in my prime yet, but you know I'm definitely you know,
I'm you know, the on upwards, like you know I'm on the
upwards for sure. Yeah, I would agree with that. Uh, before
you guys were able to make this match between yourself and and Garcia, you
know, he was gonna maybe fight Roly Romero. They had a deal and
then Roly kind of left him at the altar, so to speak, and
he went and took the fight against Pitt Bull Cruise. When that was sort
of unfolding, what was sort of like your backup plan if you weren't going
to get Ryan Garcia. I know you're fighting him now, but what was
in your mind as far as what you may have done if you weren't able
to land that big fight. Yeah, I mean I was looking at a
guy like Mario Barrios at one he was very premature talks. But we were
looking at a guy like that, We were looking at him that we were
looking at a few different guys. So he's very very very very premature talks.
Understand Uh. It seems to me like you have sort of you and
your father, you know, Bill Haney, your manager, your trainer.
Did you guys have kind of taken a page out of the Canelo playbook and
if you go back even further, the Sugar Ray Leonard playbook where you work
with different promoters. You've done short term deals. Obviously you were with match
Room for a period of time, but then you went over and you had
you know, three fights under the deal with Top Rank and Debella. That
was so you could get the Cambosas fight, and you fought Lomachenko. Then
you went back to Eddie, who you're with, I believe on a fight
by fight basis, even though you know you continue to work with him.
How empowering is that for you as a fighter to know that you and your
father can really do what you want to do in terms of the types of
opponents and where you can have fights. I mean, that was all part
of the plan. It was. It was for me to you know,
not be able to you know, be handicapped and not be able to not
make the biggest fights happen, you know, not not not get to big
money fights, not have those excuses, be able to control our own destiny.
And that's what we sayt to UH since day one, and that's that's
what we're doing. It is easier said than done, though, isn't it.
Oh yeah, I mean for sure, you know, especially in the
beginning when I wasn't making making any money, but you know, trusting the
process and you know, seeing the bigger picture and knowing that, you know,
not to sign a long term deal then because because I didn't have money,
but to you know, not sign a long term deal when I didn't
have money to just you know, stay disciplined and just you know, just
trust the process. So now you got to fight with with Ryan Garcia coming
up. And then I follow you on social media and I've watched some of
the things I saw some of your media day. You know, you're it
seems to me like the Devin Haney that I've been covering for a long time
is having a normal training camp, preparing hard, getting ready for the fight,
and your opponent, Ryan Garcia, UH is off making like crazy amounts
of social media videos and posts every single day, wild posts about all things
that are not boxing related, and to a lot of people seems like he's
just having like a meltdown. Uh what do you make of his behavior as
the guy that's gonna go in the ring and fight against him? Yeah,
I mean he he post on his page is his page, it's his it
is his platform. You know, MY main focus is to continue to remain
focus and you know, keep training and prepared to dominate him no matter you
know, if he's if he's all the way there or not. I can't
I can't get too an emotionally attached to that. I got to just focus
on being the best mee Devin. There was one post that he put on
his social media where he literally said, quote his mission is to kill you
in the ring. That that that offended me to be fight hous. I've
been doing this a long time. I've been at fights where I've been at
fights where you said something about that. Yeah, yeah I did. I
mean I've been at I've been at boxing matches where unfortunately, men have died
because of this sport. Uh. You know, I like to see a
good fight, I think like anybody, but I certainly don't want to see
anybody die in the ring or get seriously injured. It's it's not fun to
cover, it's not fun to watch. It's bad for everybody involved, the
person that's injured, the opponent, the whole industry, the everything. When
you see that your opponent says that without any like smiley face or saying he's
joking or anything like that, how does that make you feel when he says
he's literally his mission is to kill you. Yeah, well, we know
that that Brian Garcie is a TikTok or YouTuber actor, whatever you want to
call himself. I don't take nothing that he says. Series. At the
end of the day, this this, this is a brutal sport and every
time, every time we go in there, every risk our lives and we
know that. So you know, whatever, what what whatever he's playing is
set out to do, it won't work. He won't have no esser for
me on So let him say what he want to say. I'll uh,
I'll just you know, take it out on an USA and make and make
a lot of people happy. Do you feel like that he is doing all
this crazy behavior, whether it's the videos and the post and just sort of
the kind of off the rails behavior to somehow sell a fight, or do
you think he truly is sort of like table and need some help. I
don't know, I said, you know, mostly involved in that. I
don't know. I don't know. My main focus is just focused on me,
you know, similar to when I was fighting a guy like like Loma.
Loma didn't he wasn't saying anything, he wasn't talking. We weren't here
from for hearing from him. But I had to just focus on being the
best meat that I could be. So similar to this, you know,
he's doing a lot of talking the same thing. Just tunnel vision to keep
my blinder his own and stay focused. You've always truck me Devin as the
kind of guy that tries to not get too high, not get too low,
and really just sort of maintain like an even keel and leaning into your
fights in the boxing match itself. Is that am I am? I right
on the on the sort of your mentality about going into things and dealing with
the fight. There's always a lot of drama with Ryan though, whether it's
you know, be like for example, the Tank Davis fight, before and
and during and after and after the fight, a lot of people said that
they thought, because of the way that the fight ended, that he when
he went down on the knee, he got knocked down, that he quit,
that he could have got up, that he didn't seem hurt, that
he was looking at the referee and he just decided to not fight on.
Do you think that he quit in that fight? Absolutely to watch the fight.
As soon as the guy, as soon as the rep was done counting,
he got right up. I just see. I just think that he
was, you know, felt like he was over a match. I don't
know if he maybe he did. Maybe he did have some you know,
just traction going into the fight before, I mean going into the fight.
So once he you know, he felt like he had no answers, he
just was like, all right, I'm done. You think you can make
him do the same thing? And I asked you that because it seems to
me that once a boxer decides to quit in a fight, it becomes easier
to do it the next time. If it comes to that. Yeah,
I mean once you once you quit, you know how to quit. You
you've seen it that that that is an answer, that that is a solution.
So, like I said, I don't think that April twenty and for
being different, I think I see him quitting. I see you know him
him quitting or you know his coach Carl and fight off when it when when
it gets hot. Now, I saw some stuff recently that the New York
State Athletic Commission wanted to give him a mental health evaluation because of all the
stuff that was going on. As we've been talking about, are you are
you confident? I know you're training, You're gonna be ready for the fight?
Are confident? But he's actually gonna make it to the ring that night?
And if he doesn't, is there a backup plan? For example?
I know, like the excellent contender, undefeated Arnold Barbosa is on the card,
or are you is all the eggs in one basket with Ryan making it
to the ring? Yeah? No, I mean I don't have any questions
that Ryan is going to show up Ryan. Ryan is going to show up
on the to the fight. Uh right now? Ryan, whatever go playing
for? But I don't see, I don't see happened. I see only
being right Okay. When they made the match, I think a lot of
people Devin were surprised that it wound up taking place, uh and being placed
at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, which is a very excellent arena. They've
had a lot of boxing events there, but most people thought this was going
to be in Vegas. What are your thoughts about coming east for a world
title fight? Your last fight was all the way on the other side,
back in you know where you were, where you were born in in the
Bay Area. Yeah, I'm excited for you, right. I will always
happens to come back to New York, and I think I think it's gonna
be be It's that type of fight. It was. It would be a
big event no matter where we fought, So I'm not mad at I'm not
mad at at New York one bit. Oh, I'm glad to hear that.
It's as like I said, it's a great arena. You know.
One of the big talking points of the fight, besides all the craziness that's
been going on with Ryan leading up to the fight, is the fact that
you guys are very familiar with each other. You know each other a long
time. You had the the six bouts in the amateur ranks where you had
split the fights three and three. Do you think that that has any bearing
on what's going to take place twenty third? Is it just good for you
know, fans and writers to talk about. Yeah, I mean, I
don't think you I don't think it matters. I think, you know,
we're familiar with each other, but this, the pros is is definitely different,
and I'm a much better fighter than our WI wasn't amateurs. I don't
think that Ryan has gotten much better. But that's for me to show.
You know, this is when he counts for autumn marbles for everything, just
the one that that really means something. Yeah, no doubt. I mean,
I think they're saying this one counts. I saw in some of the
taglines on the artwork and stuff. You know, besides, besides the matchup
you have with with Garcia, in the fact you already defeated program, You're
in a really, you know, good weight class that's got a lot of
talented fighters in at T tim Me Lopez is a champion of the w BO,
the lineal champion. He got Sabrill Mattias, who's the IBF champion.
You know, Tank Davis has fought in this weight class before. Perhaps he'll
move up. You know, Roly Romero and Pitbull Cruiser in the weight class.
What sorts of big fights do you have in your mind if everything goes
the way you expected to go against Ryan Garcia, and you come out with
yet another victory in still undefeated and still champion. All those guys, all
those guys are my head. Obviously, my main focus is is Ryan,
but all those guys are can Can Can Can? You know, Postcoose fights
right after this one, he stuck around at lightweight for a long time and
then you obviously came up. Now you're in the jerim welterweight division. You
feel like you're gonna stick around in this weight class for the number of years
or you also have your eyes you know, in the nearer future on the
welterweight division. Yeah, no, I want to. I want to.
I want to fight out both, you know. I want to make the
biggest fights happened, the best fighters in the world. So wherever wherever that
that takes me, it takes me. But I'm interested in the one forty
division right now. You know excites me. Spa price if you made and
uh, we'll see. Well, we're gonna see. And I'll tell you
one thing. I'm looking forward to seeing you and Ryan Garcia in the ring
call me about twenty at his old pay per view. Uh, I think
it's gonna be a very interesting fight. I appreciate your time very much.
Devian has always your gentlemen. Thank you so much for doing us Yes,
I think you m m hm