‘I had to go back to the drawing board’: Haney looks to impress against Ramirez

Devin Haney says he’s a better version of himself as he returns against Jose Ramirez.

Devin Haney says he’s a better version of himself than ever before, as he gets ready for a move to welterweight this Friday against Jose Ramirez.

The former two-division titleholder Haney (31-0, 15 KO) hasn’t fought since his controversial bout a year ago with Ryan Garcia, where Garcia scored the win and dropped Haney three times, only for the result to get overturned when Garcia failed his drug test.

A win on Friday for both — Garcia faces Rolly Romero in the main event — will set up a rematch for later this year, and Haney says his time off has been spent making improvements.

“I look to show the world a new-and-improved, better Devin Haney than before,” he said. “I had to go back to the drawing board and focus on the mistakes I was making. Like I said, I had to become a better version of myself, and I’m looking to go in there and show it on Friday.”

Haney is not looking past Ramirez (29-2, 18 KO), a former titleholder at 140 who is also moving up to 147.

“My main focus right now is Jose Ramirez. He’s a former two-time champion,” he said. “He’s coming, he’s bringing everything, and I look to handicap him and show him that I’m just on a whole different level, and then we can get to the Ryan Garcia fight.”

Ramirez, 32, feels the move up in weight will benefit him after a subpar performance in his loss to Arnold Barboza Jr last November.

“I owe it to myself to show up and move up into a bigger weight class. I think that’s going to do wonders for me,” he said.