Haney vs Garcia hasn’t exactly been an advert for how to put on a boxing event as the chaos descended further below the belt this week.
Fresh from another relentless social media explosion from Ryan Garcia, the Golden Boy star met up with his rival Devin Haney in New York. More havoc ensued.
Shoves, shouting matches, and baseball stadium ejections were overshadowed by a threat by Haney’s father, Bill. These kind of statements have no place in the sport.
Bill said: “If he dies, he dies, just like Drago said. This ain’t no game. You will be sentenced, and I’m sending my son to go kill him.
“I don’t care what nobody says. If you don’t want to watch it, and you don’t want to see it, then don’t watch it.
“It was a suicide for him to sign up, and it’s going to be a homicide on April 20th. That’s for all the disrespect.”
To be fair to Bill, when it probably isn’t warranted to be fair, Garcia did also make murder threats. During one of his rants on X.com, Garcia stated: “My intention is to kill Devil Haney,
“No mercy. I hope he is ready to die. I hope he has come to terms with it. For the record, his dad announced my death first. This is war. This isn’t for the faint of heart.”
Authorities need to eradicate the horrific taunts from boxing at the earliest opportunity. WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman is yet to comment despite sending a warning to Deontay Wilder when he was the organization’s heavyweight champion.
Right now, things look like they are getting out of hand in New York. If something serious happens in the coming days or indeed during the fight, the stain on the sport could last a long time.
Promoters remain silent despite many comments on both sides that seem solely to drive poor ticket sales. Purchases have picked up slightly from last week, but thousands of seats are still up for grabs.
It begs the question, ‘How far will they go’ if killing each other isn’t enough for a sellout?
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