Henry Garcia: “Oscar Duarte Is Better Than Devin Haney”

Henry Garcia says he rates lightweight contender Oscar Duarte as a better fighter than Devin Haney and would beat him. Henry’s son, Ryan Garcia, knocked out Duarte (27-2-1, 22 KOs) in the eighth round last year on December 2nd in a fight that saw both fighters landing bombs.

Henry says he doubts Haney will choose to fight a big puncher like Duarte when he makes his comeback, which is a reasonable assumption to make.

The way that Ryan repeatedly hurt Haney in his 12-round majority decision loss on April 20th, there’s no chance that he’ll face a big puncher when he returns to the ring. Devin’s dad, Bill Haney, will carefully choose his next opponent and make sure the guy can’t start where Ryan left off.

Duarte, 28, looked impressive in his last fight, knocking out former IBF super featherweight champion Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz in the ninth round on April 27th. Duarte will be fighting Botirzhon Akhmedov this month in a 12-round contest on November 16th on Latino Night at The Venue in Riyadh.

“I think Oscar Duarte is better than Devin Haney. If Oscar Duarte fights Haney, he’ll knock him down; maybe knock him out too,” said Henry Garcia to Fighthype, talking about Ryan Garcia’s heavy-handed past opponent Oscar Duarte.

It would be interesting if Haney were to choose Duarte for his next fight just to show the boxing world that he’s brave enough to take a powerful fighter after what he went through against Kingry. Haney has made himself look weak by choosing to sue Ryan for battery over his loss because that compounds the situation.

“Ryan told me, and Ryan doesn’t really reveal things to me. He said, ‘Hey, Dad. That Oscar Duarte had some punches that I didn’t feel with these other guys. So, when he tells me that, he’s opening up to me,” said Henry.

“Mark my words. When Devin comes back, there’s no way he’s going to fight someone with power. There’s no way,” said Henry.

There definitely is zero chance that Haney would dare fight someone with power when he comes back because the probability of him being hurt would be high. Even before the fight with Ryan, Haney would be in danger.