As a boxing fan, and a fan of Devin Haney, I must say this after watching his majority decision loss to Ryan Garcia on Saturday:

First off, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t pick Devin to beat Garcia going into Saturdays bout. It was clear that Haney’s career was on the upswing and being that he was unbeaten and taking this fight serious, things played in his favor. However, I’d be remiss to ignore the concerns I’ve had about his career a few years back.

I’ve been following Haney for about seven years now, back when Floyd Mayweather Sr. was his trainer. Back then, the Floyd Mayweather Jr. comparisons were understandable. Haney would use the shoulder roll, pop his jab, jump in and out of range, use his footwork and make guys look silly in the ring. However, when he started to get more money and switch to his dad as his trainer is when I saw some changes.

That’s not to say Haney began to get worse, but instead his trajectory began to slow down. Floyd Jr. mentioned that his dad has dementia, so maybe that’s the reason for Haney and Floyd Sr. splitting up. Ever since that split happened, a lot of things began to change.

For starters, Haney began to become more independent and put his career in his own hands which is a beautiful thing to see. From my view, it appears that he began to take the ‘Money Mayweather’ route in how he bought out his own contract and began making his own decisions which eventually led to more money. He made short-length agreements with Eddie Hearn and DAZN so he could get more freedom to make fights happen. That’s when the money started to come for Haney and began flossing designer, dating celebs, and stunting. With that money also came a bunch of different types of people on the payroll (massage therapist, strength coach, conditioning coach, motivational guy in the corner always shouting compliments to him (that’s a real thing), personal chef, and just a bunch of other expenses. I began to see him more in an actual fitness gym than the ring. Now of course he probably spends a ton of time on his boxing skills, but all the science stuff just took time away from his actual boxing craft.

Let’s look at Haney’s resume, he began to handpick a lot of his opponents. Gamboa was way past his prime, Kambosos should’ve never rocked him in the first place, Lomenchenko showed that there’s levels to boxing and his first 12 fights were in Mexico against nobodies. Haney began bulking up and walking into the ring way heavier than his opponents, and the night where Garcia weighed in 143 (three pounds over the 140 cap) and didn’t drain himself, Haney lost.

The biggest critique Haney faced was that his fights were boring and he didn’t have knockout power. To prove them wrong he began fighting in the inside, which is not his strong suit and has led to him getting rocked. He also stopped using his jab as much, and stopped using his legs to create angles and switch distances. Haney’s athleticism began to enhance, but his boxing skills began to decrease.

I’m not saying he needs to switch to a new trainer, but Haney needs to get back to living and breathing BOXING. Not this upper echelon clothing, flash, heavy expenses and tons of people on his payroll, but just pure boxing.