Devin Haney needs to beat Ryan Garcia on Saturday night to make fans want to see him move up. The grandfatherly style that Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) has pursued for the past nine years is not exciting to fans. It's time for Devin to show his killer instinct against Ryan and take a risk for once in his life.
(Photo source: Golden Boy/Chris Esqueda)
If you snooze, you will lose fans
KO is box office gold. If you can't knock someone out, the fans won't care. Haney needs to understand this and stop boring fans with his antiquated fighting style. Devin fights like a 40-year-old man, trying his best to win, and that approach doesn't appeal to fans.
WBC light heavyweight champion Haney has to get more aggressive in this fight with all the attention it will receive, and that means sticking to the classic, safety-first style that he he used throughout his nine-year professional career, even if it meant he had to get up off the mat to win.
Take some risks or risk forgetting
Poor ticket sales at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, reflected that fans were not excited to see Haney fight. The 50K PPV he bought for his last contest in December is also a sign that people don't see him as a guy they're willing to pay to see.
With Haney's low 48% knockout rate, he needs to start knocking opponents out if he wants to become an attraction in the sport.
Pre-fight antics are not the solution
“When I see you miss a pitch in a Mets game, that seems despicable to me. I feel like the promoters should tell the fighters how to conduct themselves to make this happen,” Shawn Porter told fighttalks about Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney being blocked from attending an on-field promotional event this week by the New York Mets organization due to their violent altercation on the roof of the Empire State Building.
“Now everyone is missing out on money because you all are not preparing the fighters because the fighters don't care or don't know that they should care. The world expected Devin to win. I expected Devin to win, but I expected something crazy from Ryan.
“I think [Subriel] Matias is a tough fight [for Haney]. I think it's a long night for Pitbull Cruz, but I think Matias is a really tough fight,” Porter said.
