Devin Haney referred to himself as a “victim” in an interview today, devoting much of the time talking about his fight against Ryan Garcia, saying he’d been “cheated” due to his positive test for PED.
Haney sounded like he was trying to use Ryan’s positive test to explain away his defeat to make fans believe that’s why he was beaten last April.
It came across like Devin was trying to whitewash his loss to wipe the loss away from the minds of fans, who were sympathetic to his “victim” of cheating argument. He’s better off moving on and focusing on fighting rather than continuing to talk about the PED angle. Fans see that as Haney playing the victim, trying to squirm out of taking the blame for not fighting better against Ryan.
Haney’s Pursuit of Greatness
Haney says he wants to show the boxing world “how great” he is, which is funny because he was never seen as “great” even before his loss to Garcia. Devin’s win over Vasily Lomachenko was controversial in the eyes of many fans, who saw it as a robbery. Haney had looked equally bad, getting staggered repeatedly in his fight against 35-year-old Jorge Linares on May 29, 2021.
Devin’s best career wins:
– Regis Prograis: 35
– George Kambosos Jr. x 2
– Jorge Linares: 35
– Vasily Lomachenko: *controversial
– Joseph Diaz
If you remove Haney’s questionable victory over Lomachenko, his resume is paper-thin, with no quality victories. You can’t count Kambosos as quality because he was just a regular run-of-the-mill fighter until pulling off an upset against Teofimo Lopez.
Kambosos’ record is 1-3 in his last four fights. It should be 0-4 because his one win in the last three years was a controversial 12-round majority decision against Maxi Hughes.
“I want to keep showing the world how great I am and turning non-believers into believers,” said Devin Haney to the Ring Magazine podcast. “They want to see if I’m the same. After I was cheated, there’s question marks.
“They want to see if I’m the same Devin or a better Devin. He [Ryan] has the question marks too. The world wants to see if he’s the same when he’s off PEDs. Just from my experience, being a victim of being cheated, knowing how important is is being in that ring and being clean to be on an even playing field.
“I want to be an advocate for clean athletes in general, especially in boxing. We’re in there taking punishment. What a better time [to take a stand] when you see a guy [Ryan Garcia] cheat and get suspended. It’s the biggest time in boxing. The whole world seen it. I think what better time than now,” said Haney.
