Sources – Devin Haney to defend title vs. Ryan Garcia on April 20،
Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia have reached an agreement to fight April 20 in Las Vegas for Haney's junior welterweight championship, sources tell ESPN.
Haney, ESPN's No. 6 pound-for-pound boxer, will step into the ring for his third consecutive pay-per-view fight – his highest profile to date – as he continues his rise to the stars.
Haney, 25, who fights in Las Vegas, is ESPN's reigning finalist for fighter of the year.
His 2023 campaign included a thrilling decision victory over future Hall of Famer Vasiliy Lomachenko to retain his undisputed lightweight championship; and a shutout victory over Régis Prograis to become a two-division champion in his junior welterweight debut.
Now, Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) will make the first defense of his 140-pound title against Garcia, one of boxing's biggest stars.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) arguably has the fastest hands in boxing. In April, he faced Gervonta Davis in a true superfight, an event that generated over a million PPV buys and over $22 million at the gate.
Garcia was not at his best in the match, which he lost via seventh-round TKO following a body shot. After all, the 25-year-old Southern Californian agreed to a weight of 136 pounds when he couldn't get past 146 pounds the morning of the fight.
Garcia's previous two fights took place at 140 pounds, as did his most recent performance, an eighth-round knockout of Oscar Duarte in December. And that's the weight of the Haney fight, Garcia's first chance at a world title.
Haney is ESPN's No. 1 boxer at 140 pounds while Garcia is No. 8. Both boxers have a significant number of followers on social media: Haney has 2.6 million followers on Instagram; Garcia has 10.3 million.
This is a fight that has been years in the making, dating back to their amateur days when they shared a six-fight series.
But it's Haney who is the most accomplished professional boxer, a resume he will look to add to with a victory over Garcia.
Garcia, meanwhile, will be looking to pull off an upset victory in what would be a career-defining victory that would propel him onto the pound-for-pound list and change his trajectory.
