Porter Says Haney Has “Flipped A Switch” In Win

Shawn Porter says Devin Haney looked near his old self pre-Ryan Garcia knockdowns in his win over Brian Norman Jr. last Saturday night.

Porter states that Haney (33-0, 15 KOs) showed a “new edition of himself” in his 12-round unanimous decision win over WBO welterweight champion Norman Jr. on November twenty second. He says that if the Haney-Garcia rematch happens in 2026, he’ll defeat Ryan.

The rematch could have a hurdle that Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) must overcome in his fight against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios on February 21, 2026. If he loses to Barrios, the Garcia-Haney rematch likely won’t occur unless Turki Alalshikh wants it to.

“He got here into the ring, and he flipped a switch. I believe he showed a new edition of himself, a greater version of himself,” said retired former two-time world champion Shawn Porter to Fight Hub TV, talking about what he saw of Devin Haney in his win over Brian Norman Jr. on November twenty second.

Porter is seeing something in Haney’s performance against Norman Jr. that the typical fan didn’t. They saw Devin land only 70 punches in the whole fight. Of that total, 32 of them were jabs and just 38 power punches.

That’s three power punches per round. Does that low number qualify for Haney having “flipped a switch” to point out improvement over his previous timid performance against Jose Ramirez on May 2nd? Devin only landed 70 punches in that fight as well.

Porter is an example of a one that sees what they wish to see. In the event you desire a fighter to look great, you’re going to search for things that aren’t there and consider falsely that you simply’re seeing improvement.

“Hopefully, he’s closer to being the Devin Haney prior to those knockdowns against Ryan Garcia,” Porter said. “I’m going to favor Devin within the rematch. This was before the PEDs [information was learned]. I said in a rematch, Devin goes to beat him. I do know what I used to be . He [Haney] made a mistake.”

The pre-Ryan Garcia version of Haney wasn’t an offensive fighter. He was a jab and move guy, similar to he showed against Jose Ramirez and Norman Jr. He looked higher against the 35-year-old Regis Prograis because he was fighting an older guy, who wasn’t a terrific fighter to knock him out. But in his fights against Vasily Lomachenko, Jorge Linares, and George Kambosos Jr., he looked every bit as bad as he did after his fight against Ryan.

“He went into that ring. His opponent [Ryan] said, ‘Meet at the middle of the ring.’ In each round, you probably did what your opponent needed you to do as an alternative of what you must have been doing,” said Porter.

The rationale Haney was hurt repeatedly against Ryan Garcia wasn’t as a result of him making a mistake. He was hurt as a result of his attempting to initiate frequent clinches. Devin was moving into Ryan’s wheelhouse when he went to grab and hold.

Kingry had the right check left hook to work against a fighter who clinched excessively. Norman Jr. and Ramirez didn’t have that weapon. So Haney got away with holding to nullify their offense. He won’t have the opportunity to do this in a rematch with Ryan unless he weans himself away from his holding habit.