World Boxing News can report that Haney vs Garcia ticket sales are far from ideal as the WBC super lightweight title fight heads towards a fortnight remaining.
With 16 days to go until the first bell, Barclays Center in Brooklyn shows a mass of seats still available for Devin Haney’s grudge match clash with Ryan Garcia.
It seems Garcia’s trolling behavior to drive tickets and Pay Per View sales has failed to shift a significant portion of the arena.
Looking at the Ticketmaster image taken just after midnight on Wednesday, April 3rd, Golden Boy promotions have some work to do for a sellout. This is despite promoter Oscar De La Hoya outlining that Garcia’s unusual behavior was trolling to stir interest in the fight.
That ploy clearly has failed.
“That’s his style, that’s his way,” De La Hoya told Marco Villegas of FightHub TV when asked why Garcia acted strangely on social media. “I don’t talk to him every single day.
“From what I’ve seen when he’s in the gym, he’s looking sharp. He’s looking ready, and he’s looking fit.
“I’ll never forget that time when he told me he’s going to do ‘the biggest troll in the world.’ I don’t know what that means, but I guess he did it.”
When challenged on poor sales, Garcia exploded on social media before deleting the post. ‘Kingry’ wasn’t happy at being shouldered with the blame for a lack of movement for the Brooklyn battle.
De La Hoya then backed up his protege by blasting the keyboard warriors.
“Haters have no clue how to motivate themselves or motivate others,” said De La Hoya. “Haters are the scum of the earth who still live with their parents when they are 25.
“They have little income, and they definitely have no partner to love them. Surround yourself with winners who want to do better in life.”
Despite their brushing off of the criticism, numbers don’t lie, and Haney vs Garcia will not be the success it should be if all concerned don’t drive a solid gate.
The decision to host the event in the Big Apple faced opposition in the first place, not least from Garcia himself. The 25-year-old wanted the fight staged in Las Vegas but was told it was too close to the Canelo Alvarez headliner and was impossible to arrange.
Garcia then went off the rails during the New York leg of the press tour before beginning his current social media activity. Not of it driving ticket sales, sadly, for all concerned.
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