Devin Haney opens as massive betting favorite over Ryan Garcia ahead of April title fight
Undisputed WBC super lightweight champion, Devin Haney has opened as a resounding betting favorite to beat former interim titleholder, Ryan Garcia on April 20. in Las Vegas – after the championship pairing between the duo was officially confirmed yesterday.
Haney, the current undisputed WBC super lightweight champion, most recently landed the crown back in December with a decision win over former champion, Regis Prograis on home soil in San Francisco.
And fans who are interested in sports betting, can avail of opening odds already for the April championship fight in ‘Sin City’, with Devin Haney landing opening betting favorite odds as high as -600 to beat the underdog, Ryan Garcia, who is the current +420 betting underdog.
Rebounding from his first career loss back in April of last year in a seventh round KO loss to world champion, Gervonta Davis, Garcia most recently landed a December knockout win over Oscar Duarte with an eighth round KO win of his own in Houston, Texas.
A dominant world champion at the lightweight limit in the last number of years, Haney turned in an impressive, close decision win over Ukrainian favorite and technician, Vasily Lomachenko in May of last year, successfully defending his championship belts under the governing bodies of the WBC, WBA, WBO, and the IBF.
Prior to his win over Olympic puncher, Lomachenko, Haney, 25, would land a pair of back-to-back wins over former world champion, George Kambosos Jr. – defeating the Australian in consecutive decision successes as part of their two-fight series.
Riding a massive wave of support and fandom into his high-profile non-title fight with rival, ‘Tank’ Davis last April, Garcia succumbed to an eventual seventh round KO loss to the world championship holder – seeing his record of 23 straight victories halted in the process.
And following the confirmation of their April 20. championship fight in Nevada, Haney and Garcia shared an intense face-off overnight – launching a verbal tirade of insults with each other, eventually resulting in a shoving match before both rivals were corralled.
Prior to the booking of his WBC super lightweight title fight against Haney, Garcia, back in January cited the influence of former multiple-weight and time world champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr. on him – and his quest to chase a fight with the San Francisco striker.
“I’m not gonna lie, Floyd’s (Mayweather Jr.) pretty influential,” Ryan Garcia said. “He’s like, ‘Why would you do that? Why don’t you fight Rolly (Romero) for the belt and then fight (Devin) Haney?’ I said, ‘That makes sense, but I told the people already I’m gonna fight Devin.’ He said, ‘Some things change.’ I’m paraphrasing but I made the quick decision, ‘Alright, Floyd, that makes sense.’”
Notably, prior to Garcia’s non-title fight loss to the above-mentioned Davis last April, super lightweight champion, Haney noted his hope of a victory for the former – claiming Davis had simply no interest in standing opposite himself inside the squared circle.
“I’m rooting for [Ryan Garcia],” Devin Haney said last year. “I want him to win. With that being said, I want to make the biggest fight happen. [Garcia is] showing interest in wanting to fight me, os that’s the guy that I want to win… [Davis] hasn’t shown much interest in fighting me, but I don’t know.”
Before his knockout loss to Davis in the opening quarter of last year, Garcia had racked a series of eye-catching victories, including high-profile knockout wins.
Boasting an unbeaten 23-0 record ahead of his fight with the world champion, Garcia had rode a winning run over the likes of Javier Fortuna, Emmanuel Tagoe, Francisco Fonseca, and at the beginning of 2021, stopped Olympic gold medalist, Luke Campbell with a knockout victory to win the interim WBC lightweight championship.
Improving to 31-0 himself with his decision win over Prograis back in December of last year, Haney, who turned professional himself back in 2015, first achieved world champion status back in 2019 with his own interim WBC lightweight title win over Zaur Abdullev.
And retaining the WBC crown in the time since, Haney would land consecutive, notable wins over the likes of Yuriokios Gamboa, Jorge Linares, and Joseph Diaz Jr. in other championship fight showdowns.
Opening as a significant betting favorite to beat Garcia in April, Haney would also open as a slight betting favorite over the above-mentioned duo of Kambosos Jr. and Lomachenko – opening with odds in and around the -200 range, going on to beat both in tough decision victories for the San Francisco native.
Previously only ever opening as a betting underdog in his fight against Gervonta Davis, Garcia will look to land what would come as an initial upset win over Haney later this year – having opened and closed a significant favorite with the bookies to beat Duarte, which he did with relative ease back in December.
