Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney appear set to return in May before a rematch later this year, as the wheels continue to spin looking to get both back into the ring.
Salvador Rodriguez reports that Garcia could face Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Haney would take on Jose Ramirez in separate bouts on an outdoors May card in Times Square, before a potential rematch between the two later in the year.
Garcia will have his doping suspension lifted in April, having been handed a one-year ban in New York from his controversial overturned win over Haney on April 20 last year in Brooklyn.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KO) recently had a planned exhibition in Japan canceled, allegedly due to injury, but his Golden Boy promoters had already noted that they would be blocking that “fight” from happening, and then it did not.
Haney (31-0, 15 KO), who was originally judged to have suffered his first loss, has also been off since that fight, indicating even then that he would take a year off from boxing.
Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KO) is currently slated to face Angel Fierro on Feb. 1 as part of PBC’s Benavidez vs Morrell pay-per-view card in Las Vegas, which is no gimme fight. Cruz is coming off of a loss to Jose Valenzuela last August, where he dropped the WBA 140 lb title he’d won from Rolly Romero four months prior.
Ramirez (29-2, 18 KO) also lost his most recent bout, as the former titleholder was beaten by Arnold Barboza Jr last November in Riyadh.
Haney himself has also mentioned this being the current plan in another of his online squabbles, this one with Teofimo Lopez: