NEW YORK – Jose Ramirez just welcomed a new baby boy into the world in January, naming him Jose Jnr, which is fitting considering the unanimous presence of strong-willed fathers connected to Friday’s Times Square card.

“I’ll never disrespect the fathers,” Ramirez said. “I know some of them talk a little too much, but I’m a father, too, and I know it hurts me every time he doesn’t do well, every time he’s hurting.

“It’s not easy for [boxing] fathers. They play the role when the cameras are on. But whatever the kids go through, it takes a father to be there properly for them.”

At Tuesday’s public workouts, Henry Garcia and Bill Haney, the fathers of Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, renewed acquaintances in a verbal battle after the elder Haney criticized Ryan Garcia’s physique and more, and trainer-father Teofimo Lopez Snr accompanied his son to the ring, conducting a round of interviews supporting the WBO 140lbs titleholder.

“My father is always welcome,” said two-division champion Lopez Jnr, 21-1 (13 KOs). “He’s the one that just never quit on me. He believes in me way more than I did, and still is. You know, he says I could knock out Tyson Fury, so I’ve gotta stay on that.

“It's a blessing. I think that's what it really is. You need someone that's gonna give you that belief, and I’m lucky enough to have my father be that person for me.

“I mean, I came from his nutsack for crying out loud, so I think that plays key to it. You know he's not gonna turn around from you, and you know he’ll never walk away from his child. I’ve been grateful enough to have that.”

Lopez’s opponent, Arnold Barboza Jnr, 32-0 (11 KOs), is also trained by his father, a former Southern California gang member who set aside brushes with the law in his youth to find his calling, presiding over his son’s unbeaten career that is now one triumph away from a world title.

“My dad is my hero with no cape,” Barboza Jnr said. “I look up to him because, from the background he came from, the life he had, he’s admitted to his mistakes, still managed to take care of us and still keep us a family.

“We weren’t the richest, never had too much money growing up, but he made it work – got us what we needed – and I look up to that. He’s the definition of a real man, someone I strive to be.”

Barboza Jnr said he and his father maintain a ritual of sorts. In the gym, boxing talk is unlimited. Outside the gym – over breakfast, lunch and dinner – boxing is off limits.

“Outside here, he’s just my father,” Barboza Jnr said.

And that dynamic certainly exists in the cases of the Garcias and Haneys, too.

When Ryan Garcia navigated a volatile lead-up to his showdown in April 2024 against Devin Haney in Brooklyn by drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and coming in overweight before knocking down Haney three times in a victory that became a no-contest because he tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug ostarine, Bill Haney had a decision to make.

The father’s care exceeded the trainer-manager role when he oversaw a lawsuit against Garcia that included a battery claim that was highly chided in the industry.

“What they did after the Garcia fight, only they know why,” said the former unified 140lbs champion Ramirez, 29-2 (18 KOs), who will meet former two-division champion Devin Haney, 31-0 (15 KOs), in Friday’s co-main event. “I don’t think the boxing world accepts actions like that. 

“If he would have taken the loss like a man … look at what Miguel Cotto did after [getting stopped by] Antonio Margarito. He could’ve sued him for using illegal hand wraps. Instead, he took the rematch, got his glory back and so many more respected him for that.

“But I know it has to be tough on a father to watch his son go through something like that.”

Bill Haney responded by saying that, ultimately, the lawsuit became a bargaining chip that was dropped to clinch a wanted rematch with Garcia that is due to occur later in 2025.

And when others said the elder Haney was somewhat duped into taking a rugged return bout against the gritty Ramirez, he answered strongly again.

“We could’ve fought anybody,” Bill Haney said. “We picked Jose Ramirez. That’s what makes Devin elite. He pushes boundaries, and picking an opponent like Jose Ramirez proves Devin is the most accomplished, at age 26, of all the young champions, because he understands the boxing business, matchmaking and how to make the most money.

“We’re not stupid. I didn’t want his return to be a fight against a nobody. What better way to get ready for a left hook than to fight Jose Ramirez, a [fighter] who throws it the right way? The clean way.

“This is about getting to the Mount Rushmore of boxing. We’ve set out for Devin to join that fraternity. If they think we don’t know who we’re dealing with, then let the truth ring out, because they’re setting themselves up to look stupid.”

There have been whispers during their careers that Haney and Lopez would split with their fathers, as did Hall of Famers including Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Shane Mosley.

The round-the-clock relationship can feel excessive. At one point, the WBC flirted with the idea of banning fathers from serving as their sons’ trainers because dads can often be too demanding and too insensitive to the damage of a hard fight.

Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs), for instance, begged Bill Haney to stop the fight after decking Devin Haney the third time. Garcia’s main-event opponent on Friday, the former WBA 140lbs belt holder Rolando “Rolly” Romero, 16-2 (13 KOs), knows the feeling, because he endured fierce pressure from his father, Rolando Snr, to become a fighter in his youth.

“It was really hard on me growing up,” Romero said of his father. “For the longest time, he was my worst enemy. The tragedy of our bond is that he wanted me to box and I didn't want a box. I would've started boxing as a kid if it wasn’t for him. … He’d hit me if I didn’t train, made me run barefoot on the hot streets of Las Vegas.”

The damage of that past slowly healed as the younger Romero embraced the talent his father saw in him.

“I had to come to that realization on my own, that the only person who was ever there for me was him,” he said.

Romero has since taken those skills to a pay-per-view bout against Gervonta Davis, a world title, and to a potentially epic evening atop the card in New York.

“He’s my everything,” Romero said of his father. “I wouldn’t be the man I am today without him. You see my personality, you see who I am, my persona in the ring – that’s not me, it’s him.

“We talk every day now, and I love that man more than anything. I let go of everything that happened to me in the past and I built a stronger bond with my father because of that.

“This fight, it’s not dedicated to him. It’s dedicated to us.”

Garcia, 26, has arrived for this fight far more focused and calm. The turning point that allowed him to conquer the demons that led to his arrest for vandalizing a hotel in Beverly Hills was rooted in a series of heart-to-heart conversations with his father Henry.

“We stayed close as a family,” Henry Garcia said at a recent workout. “That was the key. Families can never stray far from each other. We had to stay there for him, because there were many things interfering with him.

“We, as a family, kept it a small circle. I always tell people, ‘I’m a father before I’m a trainer. Trainers come and go. Fathers are here to stay.’

“And whenever I talk to Ryan in a serious manner, he’ll come to me and talk. I tell him, ‘If there’s anything you need answers for, consult with me. I’ve been there. I’ve been through all these turmoils, been through all these episodes, and I’m here for you.’ Kids go through journeys. Staying close together – communicating – makes all the difference.”

One morning, after months of crazed living, Ryan came to his father and said: “I don’t want to drink anymore.”

That moment of clarity has sustained. Garcia finds himself on the precipice of making himself the sport’s most powerful pay-per-view draw.

“When you see drinking around you, it either tempts you or you have to stand your ground,” Henry Garcia said. “He’s standing his ground.”

If Garcia did that to Haney in his prior condition, Henry Garcia is thrilled to witness how his son will perform clean.

“He’s going to continue where he left off,” Henry Garcia said. “He’s more focused, is well into his timing, and that, to me, means he’s going to perform well.

“This is another positive stepping stone in the journey. You know where he’s come from. You saw him. But he survived, the family kept him together, and now the chapter turns, and you’re going to see some positive results.”

For good measure, Henry Garcia couldn’t stop himself from standing up for his son after Bill Haney’s shenanigans at Tuesday’s workout.

“Fathers are very emotional,” Henry Garcia said. “I try to stay as calm as possible. I have patience and composure, and that helps.

“In the end, it’s those two. They’re fighting. We’re not.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.