Porter says Haney flipped a switch in Win

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

Porter says Haney (33-0, 15 KOs) showed a “new version of himself” in his 12-round unanimous decision victory over WBO welterweight champion Norman Jr. on November 22. He says if the Haney-Garcia rematch takes place in 2026, he will defeat Ryan.

The rematch will have a hurdle for Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) to overcome in his fight against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios on February 21, 2026. If he loses to Barrios, the Garcia-Haney rematch is unlikely to happen unless Turki Alalshikh wants it.

“He got in the ring and flipped a switch. I think he showed a new version of himself, a better version of himself,” said retired former two-time world champion Shawn Porter. Fight Hub TVand talks about what he saw from Devin Haney in his win over Brian Norman Jr. on November 22.

Porter sees something in Haney’s performance against Norman Jr. which the average fan didn’t see. They saw Devin land only 70 punches in the entire fight. Of that total, 32 of them were jabs and only 38 were power punches.

That’s three power punches per round. Does that low number qualify as Haney “flipping a switch” to show improvement from his previous timid performance against Jose Ramirez on May 2? Devin also only got 70 hits in that fight.

Porter is an example of a person who sees what they want to see. If you want a fighter to look good, you’re going to look for things that aren’t there and falsely believe you’re seeing improvement.

“Hopefully he’s closer to being the Devin Haney before those knockouts against Ryan Garcia,” Porter said. “I’m going to favor Devin in the rematch. This was before the PEDs (information was learned). I said in a rematch, Devin was going to beat him. I know what I was looking at. He (Haney) made a mistake.”

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

“He went into that ring. His opponent (Ryan) said, ‘Meet in the middle of the ring.’ Every single round you did what your opponent needed you to do instead of what you had to do,” Porter said.

The reason Haney got hurt repeatedly against Ryan Garcia wasn’t because he made a mistake. He got hurt because of his attempts to initiate regular clinches. Devin moved into Ryan’s wheelhouse as he went to grab and hold.

Kingry had the perfect left hook to work against a fighter who over-clinched. Norman Jr. and Ramirez did not have that weapon. So Haney got away with holding to nullify their offense. He won’t be able to do that in a rematch with Ryan unless he weans himself from his habit.