Devin Haney Demands Ryan Garcia Sign Up for VADA Testing Before Welterweight Super Fight Can Happen

The most toxic rivalry in boxing is heating up again, and this time there might actually be a clear path to a rematch — if Ryan Garcia is willing to meet one very specific condition.

Devin Haney went public over the weekend with a straightforward offer: sign up for Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency testing, and the rematch contract gets signed immediately. Haney posted on X on March 15, writing simply, “Let’s sign up for VADA & sign for a fight now & put a date on it.” His father and trainer, Bill Haney, took it further during a video appearance following the Mike Tyson Invitational event, challenging Garcia directly: “We’re signed up for VADA right now. Ryan, you get your ass in there too and let’s make this thing happen.”

The demand is not random. It goes straight to the heart of what turned their first fight into the most controversial result of the last decade. When Haney and Garcia first met in April 2024 at super lightweight, Garcia came in over the 140-pound limit, meaning Haney’s WBC title was not on the line for Garcia even though the fight proceeded. Garcia then dropped Haney three times on his way to a majority decision victory in what looked like one of the year’s biggest upsets. But the celebration was short-lived. Garcia subsequently failed a doping test, the result was overturned to a no contest, and Garcia was handed a one-year ban from competition.

That history makes VADA testing the non-negotiable sticking point for Haney’s camp. Bill Haney specifically accused Garcia of previously dropping out of the 365-day random testing pool, and the demand is that Garcia re-enroll before any serious negotiations begin. Garcia, as the current WBC welterweight champion — he won the belt with a dominant unanimous decision over Mario Barrios on February 21 — should already be enrolled in the WBC’s Clean Boxing Programme, which includes year-round VADA testing. But Haney’s team wants to see the receipts, not just take anyone’s word for it.

The belt math here is what makes this fight potentially enormous. Haney currently holds the WBO welterweight title, which he won from Brian Norman Jr. late last year. Garcia holds the WBC belt from the Barrios fight. If both fighters win their next outings, a Haney-Garcia rematch could carry three welterweight belts — the WBC, WBO, and potentially a third depending on the division’s movements. Bill Haney laid out a timeline that would put the rematch in September, with one condition: his son first needs to get past Rolando “Rolly” Romero on May 30 in Las Vegas.

“We can get the rematch with the Garcias too, in September, after we tighten up Rolly Romero,” Bill Haney said, with Allegiant Stadium discussed as a possible venue for the fall event.

Oscar De La Hoya, Garcia’s promoter at Golden Boy, has been publicly pushing for the rematch as well. During DAZN’s broadcast of the March 14 card in Anaheim, De La Hoya dismissed the idea of giving Garcia a tune-up fight and pointed directly at Haney as the next opponent. That kind of promotional alignment — where both sides are actually saying yes — is rare in boxing, and it suggests the fight has real momentum.

But the VADA issue is not going away. Haney’s camp views it as a matter of principle after what happened in the first fight. For casual fans, it might seem like gamesmanship. For Haney’s team, it is the one non-negotiable that has to be settled before dollars and dates can be discussed. Garcia’s response — or silence — will tell fans everything they need to know about whether this rivalry gets a proper conclusion or stays stuck in social media purgatory.

The welterweight division is stacked right now. Alongside Haney and Garcia, you have WBA champion Eimantas Stanionis, IBF titlist Jaron “Boots” Ennis, and WBC Franchise champion Terence Crawford sitting above the fray. A Haney-Garcia unification in September, assuming both fighters take care of business in the spring, would be one of the biggest fights of 2026 and arguably the most personal rematch in the sport.

For now, the ball is in Garcia’s court. Sign up for VADA, and the fight is there for the taking. Stay silent, and the narrative writes itself.