Comments Thread For: Boxing's lack of support for Devin Haney is evidence of a soulless sport

[ELPacman]

The more I read about this, the more I feel there are two separate stories here and that both sides are correct.

Haney, suing Garcia should be more of a wake up call to the sport of boxing as a whole. There needs to be SERIOUS penalties for popping positive in boxing. No, well, he had this or that in his system and they may have triggered the fighter to show dirty. This goes on far too often. Yet you don't hear it with every boxer whose fought from the beginning all the way through to their retirement, just some.

A financial slap means nothing when they're at the level of millions and millions in earnings. You could remove a million from a fighter and if they earned 10+ million, well... 1 million is a lot of money, but so is 9 million or more. A year suspension... Fighters these days take off anywhere from 8 months to a year between fights. A year is more like a welcomed vacation to some of them. Crawford beat Spence, didn't pop dirty and still took off more than a year before getting his next match going.

There needs to be such a penalty that the fear involved will make trainers/nutritionist and the fighters themselves think hella hard whether getting caught would be worth it. Perhaps, career ruining. It's funny, I can say, let's make it a 5 year ban! Yet, let's put that into perspective. A fighter whose about to bank a potential life changing amount of money that he could even retire off of is probably willing to sacrifice his career as if he's going to win the lottery on the fight and whose cares if he can no longer fight in 5 years. Granted, if you're about to get banned for 5 years and need to fight dirty just to get the W, is it even worth it? What are you trying to prove then? Perhaps that is the way to go. It'll tarnish your last win which would now be 5 years old and nobody will remember it. Once you're back in 5 years, your body has aged, skills diminished, folks will just be seeing if you can capture your old magic.

Though let's remember the end all of boxing and that's the money involved with the sport. Having fighters fight that turn up dirty is like lawyers defending folks who were clearly guilty. The money to be made far outweighs the dangers involved and should a fighter be killed, well, it was unfortunate... on to the next one.

[slindee3]

If Haney had any other e&j coach not named Conte I believe people would feel differently. We ALL know the history with Conte and how he has historically beaten test on the world stage for his clients. Haney has a personality that doesn’t resonate with the public, his dad doesn’t help his cause and then the conte connection is enough for some of us to honestly not care. I’m all for a clean sport but also a clean sport free of charlatans like conte.

in terms of the result of the fight, even if not dirty Garcia hook made the difference and ostarine didn’t make Haney chinny nor was ostarine responsible for him repeatedly leaving himself open to it. Haney has horrible defense. Clean or not he still loses to Garcia that night. The ostarine positive is the excuse to deflect from the fact he couldn’t block the punch.

So you're blaming Haney because of Conte's past and not the fighter who actually tested positive for PEDs? That's a stretch. Haney and Garcia are no scrubs, but neither of them are on the same level as Tank or Shakur, but Garcia has neve beaten a top level fighter the way he did Haney, obviously there was an advantage. If Garcia had no PEDs in his system, I would have given him is props, but he did. Would Haney had gotten a pass like Garcia seems to be getting if the situation were in reverse?

[elfag]

lol we have to support haney?


haney got a gift win to get undisputed at 135. over an aging loma who is 2 divisions smaller. loma belongs at 130 and haney at 140+


as for PEDs most fighters are on PEDS most just dont get caught. You think Haney never took any banned diuretics at a minimum to make his epic weight cuts?


As for Cryan Ryan coming in 3 pounds over, we really going to give a **** about someone weight bullying him when he has been a weight bully his entire career?


the facts are Haney has no defense and no power. If haney has defense and power he wouldnt have been manhandled by Ryan.

[STREET CLEANER]

Whenever you have to read something that long is an attempt to sway to a specific opinion. Haney got a huge purse and plus took the money for the pounds that Garcia came over. There were no guarantees that Haney was going to beat Garcia even without the weight and failed drug test.

Haney has been a weight bully that actually flaunts it to his opponents. Him and his father have talked a lot of nonsense but now we have to feel bad for a pair of millionaires. Give me a Effing break.

I will give him that he has a talent and has trained and fought his way to be a name in the sport but I won't excuse his and his father's crying. His father actually wanted Haney to beat Garcia to death or near death.

[SteveM]

Two scenarios not to be confused.

ONE - THE INDIVIDUAL SCENARIO.
This is about this fight and the characters in it. Haney is being vilified, whatever that intangible means, for suing when he is an unsympathetic character who got his comeuppance for likely taking some kind of PED to so drastically weight cut as to end up weight bullying. Him suing is hypocritical.

TWO - MERITS, OR NOT, OF THE LEGAL ACTION
As the writer points out, at some point if boxing can't get it's own house in order then when (not if) a PED-taking boxer eventually kills somebody in the ring and pops dirty then the stench will see governmental bodies take action to ban boxing or reform it in ways that the average fan rejects - head guards larger gloves etc Not only that, but enforcing full on testing will force the majority of competitors out of the sport due to the prohibitive costs - in other words the scope of the sport would be hugely diminished likely leading to less money sloshing around in it and all that would entail.

Seen in that light, any action that will force boxers or the boxing 'industry' to avoid using PEDs has to be welcome. I'm not invested in haney or garcia. I could give a **** if they end up billionaires or homeless. But I am invested in finding out who the best fighters are and seeing a sport play out so we have genuine winners and losers - a level playing field in other words. So if somehow Haney's lawsuit has merit and somehow the punishment doled out to Garcia resonates throughout the boxing community to the point that most boxers give up on PEDS then I wish the Haney legal case all the success in the world.

[Apollo7]

It's a little dramatic but a good article imo. Makes some good points.

[Boxopera]

A lot of people in social media and journalism proudly display their low IQ. Shaming people into liking someone is moronic. Official judging of fights is pathetic and basically resembles organized crime. Lomachenko beat Devin Haney. There are countless fights with questionable outcomes that exhaust the fanbase. Why put energy and faith into a system that is obviously fake and bias to promoters and money??

[GFunk23]

Hubris was Haney's downfall in this fight. He thought Garcia was having a mental health crisis in the lead up to the fight and believed he would school Garcia. Haney mocked Garcia for drinking alcohol and using recreational drugs during the press conferences. In the biggest show of this hubris, during one of the final press conferences, Haney literally offered Garcia a deal where he would allow Garcia to come in overweight if Garcia paid him $500k/lb in extra compensation which Garcia readily accepted. On fight night, Garcia was not the diminished drunk/high fighter in the midst of a mental health crisis that Haney thought he was fighting and Haney was thoroughly beaten and embarrassed by Garcia. While Haney was very well paid for this fight, Haney's brand and persona has been dimished post-fight. Garcia then tested positive for Ostarine. I think Devin's case has some merit in terms of Garcia's postive test result. I think boxing fans are upset with Haney for being prepared to fight a mentally unfit fighter in what would be an unfair fight where Haney expected to have advantages but then Haney sues after the loss on the basis that Garcia actually had an advantage. My big question is whether Ostarine is a steroid or weight cutting agent? If it's more of the latter, I don't see how Haney prevails in the lawsuit as it was Haney's idea to negotiate additional compensation from Garcia for missing weight and by doing that Haney disregarded Garcia's weight. If it is a steroid then Haney may be successful here if he can prove that the Ostarine gave Garcia a material physical advantage unrelated to weight.

[TelMex]

Haney has always been one fight away from getting his glass jaw shattered. Doubt we'll see him again against a puncher his own size and age.

[mjh1969]

The article speaks the truth. Haney is definitely seen as the villain. That is by his own doing though. Whoever told Haney to sue Garcia after losing to him gave him some bad bad advice. PEDs don't make a fighter supernatural. Training hard, training smart, developing skills in the gym and through having a great trainer make the difference. Haney has bad defense and was getting clocked by the left hand all night long (ped's or not). His father is a very polarizing character and seems to be hard to deal with. Haney broke the street code by what he did. Things are always supposed to be kept away from the authorities and should be handled one on one. Haney is basically suing his fellow boxer who beat his ass for taking PEDs and beating him up in the process. Haney should have asked for a rematch and handled things with Garcia in the ring.

We will see how this plays out in the future with Haney and whether he gets good fights in the future. His career took a major nosedive with this lawsuit against Haney. Haney has been given gift decisions and now that his loss was changed to a no contest when everyone knows that he loss the fight with Garcia is also a bad look for him. At this point, Haney is no longer a PPV fighter anymore.