Eddie Hearn believes Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney are both just fighting for money at this point in their careers. He says that with all the stuff that they’ve been through since last year, they’ve lost interest in boxing, deteriorated, and focused on just making money.
Hearn feels the terrible efforts that Ryan (24-2, 20 KOs) and Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) turned in during the Times Square event in New York City on May 2nd reflected their focus on the dough. They’re both among the uber-rich class, millionaires many times over, and aren’t willing to take risks.
Hearn: Money Spoils Fighters
You hear Devin Haney talking about being holed up in his “mansion” for the last year, choosing not to fight after getting a big payday in a loss against Ryan. You just know that the money has sapped the ambition from these fighters.
Haney fought like he was playing tag against Jose Ramirez on the Times Square card, not wanting to engage after receiving a reported $10 million purse for the fight. Hearn says money changes fighters. It’s only a rare breed still willing to work hard and fight tooth and nail after becoming wealthy.
When discussing what went wrong on the Times Square card, Hearn said fighters are being “overpaid.” He didn’t mention Haney and Ryan’s names, but obviously, those were two of the three high-profile fighters at that event who failed to improve. The third was Teofimo Lopez, who ran around, showboating all night like a clown in his fight against Arnold Barboza Jr. He wasn’t interested in fighting.
“There’s an element of fighters being overpaid, and once you start making money, do you really want to put yourself physically in the trenches when your lifestyle is now fantastic? Maybe that’s what it is,” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype, discussing why the Times Square fighters, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, and Teofimo Lopez turned in lackluster performances on the May 2nd card.
It’s always been like this in boxing. Once fighters become one of the nouveau riche class, they don’t want to train and avoid getting hit. When they do fight, you see them running, not engaging, and trying to do the minimum to win. Haney and Shakur Stevenson are classic examples.
“I think it’s impossible to have the same warrior mindset when you’ve made a load of money and now you live in that 10-bedroom house [Correction: mansion] and you’ve got three Ferraris. The [fighters] are like, “I don’t really want a war. Why would I want a war? No, thank you,’” said Hearn.
Turki Alalshikh chose to overpay the wrong fighters at the Times Square card because none of the three has ever proven themselves to be solid fighters worthy of being paid millions. Haney’s best career win is a controversial decision over Vasily Lomachenko. Other than him, he’s beaten washed fighters that he had a size advantage over. Ryan never beat anyone either. His best win is Luke Campbell.
Teofimo’s best win is a controversial decision against an injured, older, and much smaller Lomachenko. He’s always ducked or overpriced himself when he had the chance to fight quality opposition that wasn’t over-the-hill.
Replace Money-Driven Boxers
“Ryan is a million miles away from fighting for a world title at the moment, especially coming off a defeat,” said Hearn. “He’s also making a lot of money. He’s thinking, ‘I’m good.’ You’ll probably see him disappear at some point. Go and do a bit of acting or chill out in California somewhere and just enjoy.”
Kingry can probably pick and choose which champion he wants to fight. But he’s a “million miles away” from winning a world title. He’s not going to win a world title against any of the champions at 147, and I don’t think cares. Like Hearn says, Garcia is fighting for the money.
“Sometimes, the game takes their love away. Ryan is probably in that spot where he’s like, ‘I’ve had so much s***. I don’t even like boxing anymore, but obviously, it’s great money. So, what’s next?’” said Hearn.
Garcia has taken criticism for making mistakes, testing positive for a PED, coming in overweight, quitting against Tank Davis, and showing no courage in his loss to Rolly Romero. Ryan wasn’t trying to go out on his shield in that fight. He gave up after being dropped in the second round by Rolly and went into survival mode. Whatever Turki paid Garcia for the fight, he wasted his money.
“Devin is there now. And Devin was never there. He was all about belts, all about achievements. Then I think the Ryan fight really disheartened him, the whole experience. And I think now, he just thinks, ‘I couldn’t care less about belts. Let me make my money, and then I’m done.’ That’s what makes you deteriorate as a fighter,” said Hearn.
Turki needs to take a broom and sweep Haney, Ryan, and Teofimo from his A-list group that he uses for his Riyadh Season events. He needs to focus on some young, hungry go-getters who are willing to entertain the fans.
With these fighters, Turki must dump the lazy ones after they become millionaires and look for new blood. It’s a revolving door. That includes Terence Crawford, Tyson Fury, and Canelo Alvarez. They need to be replaced by newer fighters like David Benavidez and David Morrell, who still want to fight hard and entertain.
Last Updated on 05/21/2025
Read the full article here