Shawn Porter Says Haney Has “Flipped a Switch”

Shawn Porter says Devin Haney looked close to his old self pre-Ryan Garcia knockdowns in his win over Brian Norman Jr. last Saturday night.

Porter states that Haney (33-0, 15 KOs) showed a “new version of himself” in his 12-round unanimous decision win over WBO welterweight champion Norman Jr. on November 22nd. He says that if the Haney-Garcia rematch happens in 2026, he’ll defeat Ryan.

The rematch will have a hurdle that Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) must overcome in his fight against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios on February 21, 2026. If he loses to Barrios, the Garcia-Haney rematch likely won’t happen unless Turki Alalshikh wants it to.

“He came into the ring, and he flipped a switch. I think he showed a new version of himself, a better version of himself,” said retired former two-time world champion Shawn Porter to Fight Hub TV, talking about what he saw of Devin Haney in his win over Brian Norman Jr. on November 22nd.

Porter is seeing something in Haney’s performance against Norman Jr. that the average fan didn’t. They saw Devin land only 70 punches in the entire fight. Of that total, 32 of them were jabs and just 38 power punches.

That’s three power punches per round. Does that low number qualify for Haney having “flipped a switch” to show improvement over his previous timid performance against Jose Ramirez on May 2nd? Devin only landed 70 punches in that fight as well.

Porter is an example of a person who sees what they want to see. If you want a fighter to look great, you’re going to look for things that aren’t there and believe falsely that you’re seeing improvement.

“Hopefully, he’s closer to being the Devin Haney prior to those knockdowns against Ryan Garcia,” Porter said. “I’m going to favor Devin in the rematch. This was before the PEDs [information was learned]. I said in a rematch, Devin is going to beat him. I know what I was looking at. He [Haney] made a mistake.”

The pre-Ryan Garcia version of Haney wasn’t an offensive fighter. He was a jab and move guy, just like he showed against Jose Ramirez and Norman Jr. He looked better against the 35-year-old Regis Prograis because he was fighting an older guy, who wasn’t a great fighter to knock him out. But in his fights against Vasily Lomachenko, Jorge Linares, and George Kambosos Jr., he looked every bit as bad as he did after his fight against Ryan.

“He went into that ring. His opponent [Ryan] said, ‘Meet at the center of the ring.’ In every single round, you did what your opponent needed you to do instead of what you should have been doing,” said Porter.

The reason Haney was hurt repeatedly against Ryan Garcia wasn’t due to him making a mistake. He was hurt due to his trying to initiate frequent clinches. Devin was moving into Ryan’s wheelhouse when he went to grab and hold.

Kingry had the perfect check left hook to work against a fighter who clinched excessively. Norman Jr. and Ramirez didn’t have that weapon. So Haney got away with holding to nullify their offense. He won’t be able to do that in a rematch with Ryan unless he weans himself away from his holding habit.