Mickey Bey has already mapped out next year, treating Liam Paro like an afterthought. Even with Paro holding the IBF belt, Haney’s trainer cannot stop eyeing a massive repeat encounter with Ryan Garcia.
Bey expects Haney to claim his second 147-pound title in December, hoping Garcia grabs the remaining pair to set up a mega-unification down the line.
“I want Ryan to get the belt from Teofimo and we fighting for the undisputed next year,” Bey said to MillCity Boxing. “That’s the biggest fight in boxing.”
The Ring’s Mike Coppinger reports that Haney and Paro are penciled in for December 19 at Chase Center in San Francisco for unified WBO and IBF honors. The date serves as Haney’s first outing under his fresh DAZN contract, ending a layoff that stretches back to his points win over Brian Norman Jr. last November.
Paro arrives hungry to spoil the party, yet Bey refuses to look at the man right in front of him. Team Haney is banking on Devin doing the business in the Bay Area, then counting on Garcia to snatch the WBA strap away from Teofimo Lopez. It reads like a promoter dream on paper, but counting on two separate fighters to deliver flawless results is asking for trouble.
“But hey, let’s settle the score. Hey, we going to win our fight. We going to have our two on our end. If he get his two, we got it for undisputed,” Bey said.
Collecting four belts looks great on paper, but hardware is not the real motivator here. Avenging the beating against Ryan is about erasing humiliation that titles cannot fix. Garcia planted Haney on the canvas three separate times in April 2024, and while a positive ostarine test officially wiped the defeat into a no-contest, commission paperwork cannot delete the footage. Fans remember Haney wobbling around the ring, and no collection of straps washes that stain away.
Bey keeps harping on Garcia missing weight as the deciding factor in that first beatdown. Complaining about the scale might sell tickets for a rematch, but excuses do not erase a one-sided shellacking. Haney has to get in the ring and physically prove he can handle the smoke himself.
Before any future rematch happens, Liam Paro is standing in the doorway. The Australian won his IBF belt by scraping past Lewis Crocker on tight 115-113 cards in June. That razor-thin margin might make Haney’s team think Paro is ripe for the picking, but the champion is not showing up just to roll over and surrender his hardware.
Between the ropes, Haney brings a frustrating, defensive style built around an active jab and constant retreat. Paro cannot fall into the trap of following him like a tourist. The Australian southpaw has to cut the ring in half, pin Haney against the ropes, and batter the ribs the second Haney dives in to initiate a clinch. If Paro allows Haney to jab, circle away, and reset without taking damage, he will spend the entire night chasing shadows on the scorecards.
Bey talks like December is just a tune-up stop on the road to a mega payday with Garcia. Treating a unified title bout like an afterthought provides Paro with perfect ammunition to derail Team Haney’s master plan before it ever gets off the ground.
An undisputed fight offers both men all four titles to parade around, but everyone knows the hardware is secondary. The actual hook for the public is seeing whether Haney can avoid getting planted on the canvas again, or if Garcia repeats the destruction.
