Ryan Garcia has ramped up the mind games with Devin Haney by sharing footage of his bitter rival getting ‘rocked’ in sparring by Gervonta Davis.
Haney is set to defend his WBC super-lightweight title against Garcia in a highly-anticipated grudge match on April 20, when the two former amateur foes will collide in the professional ranks with the score locked at 3-3.
There is certainly no love lost between the pair and their respective families, with tempers flaring in an unsavory press conference on Thursday, which saw Garcia threaten to ‘beat the f**k out of’ a member of Haney’s entourage and the champion accuse his challenger’s father of racism.
And a few hours after those explosive events in LA, Garcia has tormented Haney by posting a clip of one of his unflattering sparring sessions during the early stages of his career.
The footage shows a young Haney, in his teenage years at the time, weathering a storm at Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas while sparring with the boxing legend’s then-protege Davis – who became the first man to defeat Garcia last year.
Ryan Garcia has shared footage of Devin Haney getting ‘rocked’ in sparring by Gervonta Davis
Haney (left) is set to defend his WBC super-lightweight title against Garcia (right) on April 20
To ramp up mind games with his rival, Garcia has shared a clip of Haney (white gloves) being dominated in sparring by Davis (black gloves) with Floyd Mayweather (white cap) refereeing
Davis (right), now a three-weight world champion, appears to get the better of the spar
But Haney says he still holds his head high after being competive early on in his career
Garcia shared the sparring video on YouTube and captioned it: ‘Gervonta Tank Davis ROCKS Devin Haney!!!’
Davis, now a three-weight world champion, can be seen peppering Haney as his less-experienced opponent backs up against the ropes on several occasions.
Mayweather is seen refereeing the contest in the ring, while four-weight world champion Adrien Broner is even seen jumping in to split them up at one stage.
Yet despite his apparent humbling against Davis, a defiant Haney says he is proud of his performance that day at such a young age.
‘Never did they post a chopped up edited video,’ he wrote on X. ’16 years old & in there holding my own. We bet AB [Adrien Broner] pops & he honored it & paid!
‘Ryan we watched u quit we are not the same & never will be tune in April 20th I’ll show it!’
Garcia was knocked out in the seventh round of his showdown with Davis last April, failing to return to his feet after being dropped by a vicious body shot on the night.
After bouncing back from his first professional defeat with a knockout win over Oscar Duarte in December, the 25-year-old now has the chance to become a world champion.
But standing in his way is Haney, who recently dethroned 140lbs champion Regis Prograis in dominant fashion.
Garcia arrived for the latest leg of his and Haney’s media tour on a horse in LA on Thursday
Haney claimed Garcia’s father Henry used a racist term after he referred to his dad Bill as a ‘nappy head motherf***er’
The two teams and their families went back and forth in a fiery presser in LA on Thursday
After bizarrely arriving on a horse, Garcia confessed to drinking and smoking marijuana at their latest press conference on Thursday, while denying Haney’s claims that he takes cocaine.
Haney took aim at Garcia by accusing him of being on cocaine at the second leg of their media tour.
‘Stop the coke n****, it’s f****ng up your voice,’ Haney said as Garcia spoke at the podium on stage.
‘I don’t do cocaine,’ Garcia replied. ‘I would do a live drug test [to prove it].
‘I drink and I smoke weed, and so has the majority of this room.’
Haney then responded: ‘What kind of example are you for the younger generation watching this? Talking about that you drink and you smoke weed, making that cool. The younger generation look up to us.’
Garcia shouted: ‘You’ve finally got somebody raising their hand saying, “I’m real. I’m like this. I do drink, I do smoke – now what?’