Israel Adesanya put down a large — however doubtlessly dangerous — wager on Devin Haney forward of his boxing match with Ryan Garcia on Saturday night time.
Betting on Haney to win isn’t that a lot of a shock contemplating the overwhelming odds favoring the undefeated 25-year-old boxer to beat Garcia, with Haney sitting as excessive as an 8-to-1 favourite. However Adesanya didn’t simply choose Haney to win.
As an alternative, the previous UFC middleweight champion put down a $20,000 guess on Haney to win by knockout over Garcia.
It’s Haney’s perceived lack of knockout energy that makes Adesanya’s wager somewhat riskier than normal. Haney hasn’t completed an opponent since knocking out Antonio Moran all the way in which again in 2019.
In his 9 wins since that night time, Haney remained undefeated however has gone to resolution in every a type of fights, together with latest wins over Regis Prograis, Vasily Lomachenko, and George Kambosos Jr.
Throughout his profession, Haney has 15 knockouts throughout 31 wins, however the majority of these finishes got here earlier than he was a champion or confronted top-notch competitors. He’ll try to vary that narrative on Saturday in Brooklyn when he faces Garcia in a heated grudge match.
If Haney can pull off the knockout, Adesanya takes dwelling simply over $40,000 for the profitable wager.
If not, he’ll be out $20,000.
