Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney on the brink of a deal for trilogy series

All it will take is an exchange – their own special versions of an apology and forgiveness – for Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney to be on their way toward a potential trilogy.

According to two sources close to the situation who spoke to BoxingScene on Wednesday, Garcia and Haney are on the brink of setting aside nine months of acrimony over their controversial April 20 fight plagued by Garcia’s positive drug test results to strike a deal for a planned three-fight series.

The fighters have already signed off on a non-binding memo of deal points crafted by Saudi Arabia’s events company Sela.

The top priority to move things forward now is for Garcia to enroll in a more than year-long comprehensive drug testing program supervised by an agency he has often criticized, the Nevada-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

Believing that Garcia will do so, Haney had his attorney move Wednesday to put a 90-day hold on Haney’s multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Garcia that alleged battery, among other claims, connected to the dispute over their prior bout.

Should things move forward swimmingly – no guarantee of that, given the multitude of dramatic events around their first bout – Haney would drop his lawsuit entirely and the fighters will sign a fully binding long-form agreement, one official explained.

After weekend visits in London with Saudi Arabian power broker Turki Alalshikh, Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs), and two-division champion Haney, 31-0 (15 KOs), verbally agreed to the steps that will lead to a planned rematch in October and even a trilogy bout next February, both in Saudi Arabia, according to boxing officials briefed on the schedule.

Considering the stringent drug testing, the volatility during the first fight and the outcomes of these future bouts, one individual connected to the negotiations said these suggested plans qualify as “a crapshoot” to become reality.

“There’s substantial risk,” said one of the officials who spoke to BoxingScene. “But nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Whetting the appetite for the rematch, Garcia and Haney are also pegged to fight separate bouts on the same card in early May.

One proposal is to stage the May event as a spectacular outdoor card of fights in New York’s Times Square, said an official who was told of the plans.

Whether that can happen or not is uncertain. The Saudis originally sought to stage their debut August 3 card at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before recalculating and hosting it at next-door BMO Stadium, home of the LAFC soccer team.

The Saudis and the Haney camp on Wednesday were awaiting confirmation that Garcia has enrolled in VADA.

He’ll also need to submit a negative test to the New York State Athletic Commission to be cleared to fight again. 

The bout-sheet memo stipulates that the weight limit for Garcia-Haney II and III will be 147lbs, with no morning weigh-in requirement, according to an official who reviewed it.

The former amateur rivals met April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, when Garcia surprisingly rallied from his highly erratic fight-camp behavior and missing weight by more than three pounds to knock down Haney three times and score a majority decision triumph.

The New York State Athletic Commission later tossed out the victory, dismissing it as a no-contest after Garcia submitted three positive tests – two to VADA, one to NYSAC – for the banned performance-enhancing drug ostarine.

The commission suspended Garcia for one year and fined him.

Haney ultimately vacated his WBC 140lbs belt, then filed his lawsuit in New York, engaging in a series of back-and-forth social-media posts and palpable vitriol with Garcia, creating the most compelling soap opera in boxing.

It appeared that ego might get in the way of a rematch, but when both attended Alalshikh’s Ring Magazine event, they were informed of his plans to stage these lucrative bouts.

“We had great conversations in London with [Alalshikh] and Dr. Rakan,” Garcia advisor Guadalupe Valencia told BoxingScene on Tuesday. “Ryan is very excited to get back in the ring. He is motivated and doing very well.”

VADA, according to individuals close to the situation, originally requested that Garcia write a letter of apology to the organization for his caustic comments against the Las Vegas-based organization headed by International Boxing Hall of Fame member Margaret Goodman.

By signing up for VADA’s stringent testing, Garcia effectively does more than apologize by endorsing the testing body that is strongly backed by Alalshikh, who has employed VADA for several of his events, including his stacked Feb. 22 card in Saudi Arabia.

Alalshikh will bankroll VADA’s testing of Garcia and Haney, two officials told BoxingScene.

The repercussions for not following VADA mandates or criticizing the organization will be severe, including having the fight called off, an official said.

Earlier this month, Haney became the first fighter to enroll in VADA’s 24-7-365 drug testing plan.

Garcia has professed to being a clean fighter despite the positives, and by remaining clean throughout this planned series, he will have the stamp of VADA clearance as he aims to repeat his convincing in-ring triumph.

Haney, according to an individual close to him, has found contentment in the fact that the money he’ll earn for these bouts is far and away over what he would collect in the lawsuit.

The testing requirements should ensure that ”now we’re going to see who the real fighter is,” said an official familiar with the arrangement who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Garcia has repeated often from the night of the fight that Haney had no answer for his crushing left hook, which immediately rocked Haney in the first round and led to knockdowns in the seventh, 10th and 11th rounds.

Haney has countered by saying he was beaten by a cheating fighter. He felt Garcia coming in overweight in April was another advantage as then-WBC 140lbs titleholder Haney strenuously depleted his body to defend his belt.

Haney is said to view the 147lbs weight limit for the October rematch as a positive, providing him the comfort to avoid a grueling weight cut and the ability to rehydrate toward a similar fight weight as the taller Garcia. 

The fighters’ May opponents are not yet set, but Haney is not interested in selecting a pushover and has former unified 140lbs titleholder Jose Ramirez on his list of potential foes, according to an official.

Garcia is believed to have teased his May bout on X on Wednesday when he posted, “I can’t wait for you guys to see who I’m fighting. One thing you can’t say about me is I take weak fights, ever. Only one really doing it.”

Certainly, whatever happens between now and May, more social media posts will follow.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.