Tough Task for Garcia as He Challenges Haney

April 20 sees Devin Haney defend his newly won WBC super lightweight title for the first time. He takes on Ryan Garcia at the Brooklyn Center in New York.

It’s a fight that should attract plenty of interest from gamblers. Boxing remains a popular sport to place bets on. The same can also be said of MMA and that’s definitely so in Canada where gamblers head to https://twin.com/en-ca/bets/mma to find the latest news and odds.

In eight years as a professional boxer, Devin Haney has won all 31 of his professional fights. The fact he won his first two pro fights in just 129 seconds indicated that he was a boxer to keep a very close eye on.

Campaigning in the lightweight division, it was only a couple of years until he started winning title belts. He made his way up the rankings winning titles such as the WBC and WBO Inter-Continental belts.

2019 was a major year in his career with the WBC interim lightweight title won. Just months later he beat Alfredo Santiago to become the fully fledged WBC lightweight champion. It was a dominant victory with judges giving all 12 rounds to the new champion.

It took a while for the really big title defenses to come along. 2022 saw him travel all the way to Australia to twice defeat George Kambosos Jr. The first of those fights saw him add the WBA (Super), IBF and WBO lightweight titles to his collection.

With the Australian challenger comprehensively beaten, Haney had one more fight in the lightweight division. He beat former champion Vasyl Lomachenko on points though many pundits felt it was closer than the judges scored it.

The challenger has a lot to prove in this title fight. Many are surprised he’s even been given the chance to become WBC super lightweight champion. Garcia has long been known more for his social media presence and good looks. Proving that he could mix it with the best in the ring has been a major battle for him.

Garcia first won titles in the super featherweight division before making the move up to lightweight. 2021 saw him beat Britain’s Luke Campbell to win the interim WBC lightweight title. He had to get off the floor to do so in the toughest fight of his career to date.

His unbeaten record ended last April when being knocked out in seven rounds by Gervonta Davis. Those questions over his ability to mix it with the best has surfaced again. He’s won one fight since then but victory over Oscar Duarte Jurado on points is light years away from beating Haney. .