Walking into Club Avalon in Los Angeles, CA, you felt a certain level of energy and knew it wouldn’t be a typical press conference. With it not being a typical event, there was a significant delay with the start time as the fighters were well over an hour late. Regardless, Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) and Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) made up for it in their entrances.
First, Garcia, dressed in all white like his promoter Oscar De La Hoya, had a few women dressed in cheerleader-type outfits with Hulu hoops doing some dances while the song “I’ll Be Missing You” by P-Diddy played in the background. The significance of that was that Haney, at one point, took a picture next to Diddy, and with all of the accusations circling the music mogul, Garcia was playing up an angle that Haney was missing Diddy in a relationship-type of way.
Haney wore a shirt that imitated a bulletproof vest while playing the Tupac & Dr. Dre Song “California.” Haney came in with a serious look on his face and said some words to Garcia.
Bernard Hopkins took the podium and applauded Team Haney for getting the deal done in record time. He wanted to clarify that he would not address questions or comments outside the Haney vs Garcia fight. This was said as the NYC press conference took a turn when Bill Haney started to take shots at Hopkins during his time at the podium. Derrick James said he expects a great fight but kept his comments short.
Haney would then grab the mic and say, “The death of Ryan Garcia the way you know it.” Golden Boy Promotions Chairman and CEO Oscar De La Hoya would then say a few words while claiming April 20 to be the “biggest event in boxing history.”
When it was Garcia’s turn to make some comments, this is when things made a hard turn. Garcia wanted to clear the air about allegations of him using cocaine but then admitted to smoking weed and drinking alcohol. Garcia would reflect on his come-up and realize he has to “clean some stuff up,” and taking a picture with a lit marijuana joint in his mouth was “a bad move.”
Haney would then grab the mic and say that he lost respect for Garcia during the last few days and taunted him about being a role model but also doing drugs. Both Haney and Garcia’s fathers would get into it, and Henry Garcia made some comments that came off as racist about his hair. Haney would then ask if Garcia was going to pull out of the fight and if he was getting a panic attack. Garcia would go quiet. Both fighters did a quick faceoff, and Garcia would leave the building without doing a segment with the media in attendance.
The place was packed with fans and media wanting to get a glimpse of what they should be expecting come April 20. This fight between two young fighters hitting their physical primes while having a history against each other is the type of story that writes itself. Will it be Haney who seems to be ascending, or will Garcia finally put it all together and win his first world title? This will be a fight you don’t want to miss.
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