Devin Haney Questions Ryan Garcia’s Performance Against Rolly Romero After PED Suspension

Devin Haney claims the version of Ryan Garcia against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero in his decision loss to him last May was like a “different” person from the version that he’d lost to in 2024. Haney agrees that Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) had an advantage over him when he had the banned PED Ostarine in his system.

Haney Whitewashes Loss

Devin sounds like he’s trying to whitewash his loss to Ryan, blaming it on him being on PEDs rather than admitting he couldn’t handle his power or block his left hook. If Haney gets knocked out in his next fight against WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. on November 22nd, he’ll need to accept that he lacks the chin to deal with power punchers.

In Kingry’s first fight back from a one-year suspension, he lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero on May 2nd. Haney believes that Garcia was entirely different than the guy he’d lost to. However, what he’s overlooking is the size and power of Rolly on the night of the fight.

Garcia’s Rolly Romero Loss

Rolly resembled a normal-sized junior middleweight after rehydrating, and he looked huge inside the ring fighting the slender welterweight Garcia. As big as Romero was in that fight, he’d have beaten most of the welterweights in the division on size alone. Haney would have had similar problems dealing with Rolly’s size and power.

Fighting a guy that is essentially a 154-pounder would be a nightmare for any fighter coming up from 140. Rolly should be fighting at junior middleweight with guys his own size rather than melting down to fight at 147.

Ryan pummeled the weaker Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) for 12 rounds, dropping him three times, and hurting him repeatedly with left hooks in a majority decision win. The results of the fight were later overturned by the New York Commission and changed to a no-contest due to Garcia’s positive PED test.

Ryan Garcia’s Transformation

“100%, it shows. It was two different people,” said Devin Haney to the Ring Magazine channel when asked if he believes Ryan Garcia got an advantage from the PED he tested positive for against him. “It was two different people in the buildup. It was two different people on the fight night. A blind man could see that. It just was not the same Ryan Garcia.

I disagree with Haney. Garcia was different in his loss to Rolly because he was facing a bigger fighter with a lot of power. Ryan needed to have more size on him to compete with the junior middleweight-sized Romero that night, because he wasn’t going to be able to out-punch him, which is what he foolishly tried to do. He should have used his boxing skills to defeat him, because he would have done this.

“He had no pop, no fast twitch, he had nothing. He looked like he was a totally different person,” Haney said about Ryan’s transformation in his last fight against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero on May 2nd. “I do give Rolly his credit. He came in there with a good game plan. It wasn’t just him [Garcia] not being on PEDs. I think Rolly fought a good fight on top of him being off.”