Just when you thought that the lead-up to the Devin Haney 31-0 (15) versus Ryan Garcia 24-1 (20) fight couldn’t get any nastier, the father and trainer of the WBC junior welterweight champion has revealed he will be sending his son out to “kill” his opponent when they meet at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday night.
The bizarre behaviour of Los Angelan Garcia, 25, on social media has caused a stir amongst fans and pundits and it seem Bill Haney isn’t immune to its reach.
Frequent topics on Garcia’s verified account on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, include rants against child trafficking, talk of UFOs and various conspiracy theories all mixed in with healthy dose of Christian commentary.
Just this week he recommended drinking wine, smoking marijuana to the point of exhaustion and maintaining a high caffeine intake to combat dementia.
As for the fight itself, Garcia has repeatedly disparaged San Francisco’s Haney, 25, and now it seems both father and son have had enough.
“I’m sending him to go kill him,” Haney senior said. “You disrespect the country; you disrespect the people; you disrespect a religion – you will be sentenced and I’m sending my son to go kill him.
“I don’t care what nobody says about him. If you don’t wanna watch it and you don’t want to see it, then don’t watch it.
“It was a suicide for him to sign up [to fight] and it’s gonna be a homicide on April 20th, because of all the disrespect. It’s gonna be an annihilation. It’s not gonna be a beating, it’s gonna be an annihilation.
“Like [Ivan] Drago said in Rocky – if he dies, he dies.
“He disrespected boxing and he disrespected people. He disrespected the sport and if he dies, he dies, just like Drago said.
“This ain’t a game. I’m sending my son to go kill him.”
Haney and Garcia met at the top of the Empire State Building for a publicity shoot and it didn’t take long before the pair got into a bit of push and shove.
“He’s still drunk. I’m going to annihilate him on Saturday night. You are all going to see,” Haney told Fight Hub TV. “He’s still drunk from last night. The world is going to see me expose this fool.
“This dude is a clown, a fraud and he’s not the real thing.
“He doesn’t take this seriously. I’m a student of the game and a true professional. I will show it.”
Although he is not renowned as a knockout artist, Haney did drop former world champion Regis Prograis in the third round of their fight in December before going on to win by shutout in his 140-pound debut.
When asked by Fight Hub TV if he would be gunning for a knockout, Haney said he would be upset if he didn’t get one.