BOXING

Devin Haney to sue Ryan Garcia over lost revenue

WBC Light welterweight champion Devin Haney plans to pursue legal action against Ryan Garcia over the positive PED fiasco following their bout.

KEVORK DJANSEZIANAFP

To say that Devin Haney is not happy with the current situation is putting it lightly. Loudly expressing his disgust with the insultingly low purse bid by Top Rank, the only promoter to submit a bid, for his upcoming title defense against Sandor Martín, Haney later suggested that he would take a break from the sport.

Now he has doubled down on that by announcing that he will be pursuing legal action against Ryan Garcia for loss of income. All of this stems from Garcia’s controversial cheating in their bout last April.

Already embroiled in a spat with the WBC over that loss, Haney managed to get it changed to a no-contest no decision, but he wants the record to be changed to a disqualification loss for Garcia.

The fallout from that performance against Garcia, despite the weight, despite the PEDs, has seen Haney’s stock drop amongst the boxing public, a fact which directly led to the recent low purse bid.

In business terms, Devin Haney feels that Ryan Garcia committed a fraud that led to the lowering of Haney’s brand value.

“It definitely had a major impact. I haven’t made a million and a half since my beginning days of signing with Matchroom,” said Haney. “So, it affected me. My lawyers and my team will do that in court against Ryan Garcia, and we will take legal action because it has affected me. Not only financially but mentally.”

Complicating things is the fact that Haney refuses to commit to facing Martín next, saying that they will “weigh our options.”

This is perhaps not the way for Haney to win over a public who have little appetite for his options at this point. He would like to run it back against Garcia, but even that is looking increasingly unlikely.

Most viewed

More news