Haney, the WBO champion, has WBA champion Rolly Romero and a potential grudge match against WBC titleholder Ryan Garcia firmly in his sights for his next fight. On the latest episode of Inside The Ring, he said conversations have been had about facing either guy next.

Between the potential unification bouts, there’s no disputing that a rematch against Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs) is far more significant given the history and bad blood between the two. They fought in April 2024, but the initially majority decision for Garcia was overturned to a no-contest after he tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug Ostarine.

But if that fight is going to happen next, Haney said Garcia has to change his stance when he comes to the negotiations, or he’ll face Romero next instead.

“The Ryan Garcia fight is the biggest fight in boxing, in my opinion,” Haney told ITR. “It does so much for me and my career, my resume, but like I said, he has to be realistic in these negotiations. I'm not here to just take anything. Ryan Garcia, when the ball was in his court, he didn't make weight, he showed up with a positive drug test — it was all over the place.

“We're not going to do it like that this time around. We're going to do it the right way. If he doesn't want to do it the right way, then we'll move on. We'll go on to fight the guy that beat him and the guy that he doesn't want to rematch. He's not screaming Rolly's name. If that is the case, then we go and we fight Rolly, and if Ryan Garcia wants to get realistic, then we can make that fight happen now or later.”

Haney (33-0, 15 KOs) said discussions with Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) and his team have been positive to this point, with a date, venue and network being presented. Romero, 30, hasn’t fought since defeating Garcia by unanimous decision in May last year to win the interim WBA title. He was later elevated to full champion.

Haney added that he and Garcia have exchanged DMs on social media to begin discussions on a potential rematch, but those conversations didn’t get far.

“The first thing he said was, ‘Hey, I'm just letting you know I'm the A-side,’” Haney said. “One, we haven't even started really negotiating to even say what's the A side or a B side, and everybody knows if His Excellency Turki Alalshikh is going to put up the fight, then it's really no A-side or B-side. You get what you get and you go your way and I go my way.

“The deals are so lucrative that you don't really care. I never asked what Brian Norman is getting or what [Jose] Ramirez is getting because I'm happy with what I'm getting. It does not matter. I don't know if it was mind games or I don't know what his angle was at it, but it just wasn't realistic. If we're talking about a side, I'm the guy who's No. 1 in the division. I'm the guy who beat the best guy in the division. He beat the worst guy in the division. I'm the guy on the pound-for-pound list. So if anybody's the A-side, it's me.”

Haney, of San Francisco, has gone 2-0 since the no-contest with his latest win being a dominant unanimous decision over Norman on Nov. 22 to become the WBO titleholder. The win made Haney a three-division champion and moved him to No. 8 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list and No. 1 at welterweight.

Garcia, 27, of Victorville, California, rebounded from a loss to Romero in May by beating dropping Barrios in the first round before winning a one-sided unanimous decision to become the WBC champion on Feb. 21.

While the result of their first fight was tossed out by the New York State Athletic Commission, there’s no shortage of things Haney said he’d improve in a rematch. Garcia dropped him three times.

“I came into that fight overconfident,” Haney said. “I felt like a guy like Ryan couldn't beat me. I thought that I was going to run him over. I didn't take him as seriously as I should have. I'm not saying in training camp or anything like that, because I always work hard. I always push myself to the limit, but I think that mentally, I was overlooking him.”