Haney: “Remembering Faces” After Garcia Loss

Devin Haney posted on Instagram today, telling his followers that he’s “working in silence” and “remembering faces” of his “doubters.” This bitter message signals that Haney has been stewing on his loss to Ryan Garcia and wants to show people how wrong they were about him.

The humiliating defeat must be tough for former two-division world champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) to digest because he’s replaying the memory inside his head of the three times he was dropped by Kingry’s left hook on April 20th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

It’s got to be like an old, grainy movie in Devin’s head, and he’s probably wishing he’d done things differently. Haney’s isolating behavior is a classic example of the shame response for someone who failed. It could help Haney if he can come back stronger, having improved, and ready to avenge his loss.

“Working in silence.. remembering faces & names of every doubter & naysayer! @justtrain
#TheDream,” said Devin Haney on Instagram.

Blame Game

“Absolutely. Whatever happened, he’s not no quitter like Ryan quit against Tank Davis. So, he’s known as as a quitter,” said Bill Haney to the Danza Project, talking about Devin not quitting during his fight against Ryan Garcia. “Devin is a warrior.

“It was a combination of Devin not being Devin and him trying to be what the fans wanted to see,” said Bill on why Haney lost to Garcia. “Up until then, they said he didn’t have heart and wouldn’t stand in the middle of the ring.

“He [Haney] stood in the middle of the ring with someone that we didn’t factor in Ostarine. We didn’t factor in he was going to be that much stronger. One thing about Ostarine is that it helps in recovery. It helps in strength and power. All those things,” said Bill about why Devin lost to Kingry.

The reason Devin lost the fight wasn’t because he was standing in the “middle of the ring’ against Garcia. Where Haney lost the fight was his habit of clinching nonstop, which put him in the firing line of Ryan’s short left hook.

That was where Devin was eating shots. He was reaching or pulling back with his clinching, and that made it easy for Kingry to catch with the short check left hook that he likes to throw. If Devin’s training team knew what they were doing, they’d have warned him not to hold so much because that style was tailor-made for Garcia.

It may have worked for Haney in his fights against George Kambosos Jr, Regis Prograis, and Jorge Linares to hold, but using that same strategy against Garcia was dumb. That’s why he lost. How can Bill not know that?

Wasted Time

“It was a great injustice that was done to a wonderful guy that did nothing but good business. The fans, they’re the ones that buy the pay-per-views. You want to please them. Devin wants to please his games to go out and fight that way. It wasn’t a winning game plan, but I still can back my guy 1000% because he went into battle. He went into there as a warrior. He came out, and I couldn’t be more proud of him,” said Bill about Devin.

What’s worrisome is how much time that Haney is staying out of the ring since his loss to Ryan. All this energy being put into the lawsuit may not pay off for Haney, who is losing time out of his career and may not be worth it in the end. It’s unclear if this is Bill that is driving the process, but it’s not a good thing for Devin if he loses out on a year of his career waiting for the lawsuit to come to a completion.