“I just wanna beat Devin Haney’s ass bad,” Garcia said just before he walked away from the microphone.

Garcia produced precisely the type of impressive victory over Mario Barrios on Saturday night he needed to regenerate interest in a rematch with Haney. The resurgent Garcia out-classed Barrios, won their 12-round bout by unanimous decision and left T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with the WBC welterweight title that gave Garcia leverage he lacked before he beat Barrios by scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109 in the main event of “The Ring: High Stakes” card.

A second fight against Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) would now provide Haney (33-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) with not only a shot at redemption, but an opportunity to become a unified welterweight champion. The Oakland native beat Brian Norman Jr. by unanimous decision November 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to win the WBO 147-pound crown.

A Haney-Garcia rematch would’ve occurred by now if Garcia weren’t upset by Rolando “Rolly” Romero, who dropped Garcia in the second round and defeated him by unanimous decision in the main event of The Ring’s card May 2 at Times Square in New York. Haney has downplayed a potential rematch with Garcia in recent weeks because the former undisputed lightweight champ claimed Garcia withdrew from stringent Voluntary Anti-Doping Association testing for performance-enhancing drugs during his camp for the Barrios bout.

Garcia happily discussed the possibility of facing Ring junior welterweight champ Shakur Stevenson next. The Victorville, California native was less optimistic about boxing Haney again, despite that Haney still seeks an opponent for his next fight.

“And Devin, he don’t want that,” Garcia said. “He’s terrified. He has PTSD.”

Garcia referred to dropping Haney three times in April 2024, when Garcia was initially declared the winner of their 12-round bout by majority decision at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Garcia’s glorious win was short-lived.

The result of their fight was changed to a no-contest because Garcia, who came in three-plus pounds overweight for their WBC 140-pound championship bout, also tested positive for Ostarine, a banned substance. The New York State Athletic Commission fined Garcia $1.2 million and suspended him for one year as well.

Garcia, 27, insists he didn’t intentionally ingest Ostarine. Lupe Valencia, Garcia’s attorney and adviser, chastised Haney and other detractors during his post-fight press conference.

“People say all kinds of nonsense, but Ryan’s been doing testing his entire career,” Valencia said. “He’s fought for interim titles. When he fought ‘Tank’ Davis, we were doing VADA testing and it wasn’t for a title. He’s been testing his entire career. Every single time we set up a fight, we sign a contract, there’s VADA testing.

“There’s no such thing as dropping out of VADA testing, so all those stories are just fabricated, people trying to hate on Ryan and they’re just excuses for Haney to feel good about himself. Haney wants to have an excuse as to why he got beat up. And that’s it, so it’s all nonsense.”