Last week’s media kickoff for “Fatal Fury,” the May 2 card featuring Ryan Garcia-”Rolly” Rolando Romero, Devin Haney-Jose Ramirez and Teofimo Lopez Jnr-Arnold Barboza Jnr, knocked the dust off some old memories and likey stirred up more than a few emotions.

At New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the focus – for once – was trained pretty firmly on the fights at hand, but the larger context hung over the entire affair like a toxic cloud of testosterone, Drakkar Noir and unresolved heartache. With “Fatal Fury” having been created as a preamble of sorts for Haney-Garcia II, the details of their first fight – and its aftermath – never felt very far away.

To sum up: Last April, after a gnarly promotion during which Garcia’s behavior lapped the usual levels of bizarre found in boxing, he came into the fight overweight, caught and dropped Haney with three left hooks, tested positive for performance-enhancers and received various punishments in the weeks that followed – including a year-long suspension from the New York State Athletic Commission. The fight result was changed to a no-contest, a lawsuit by Haney’s side was filed, and lots of blame, regret and hurt feelings haunted an action fight between two excellent young junior welterweight fighters.

With Haney now set to face his fighter next, Ramirez manager Rick Mirigian recently discussed the fallout from Haney-Garcia. Mirigian said he knows Haney’s side views the 32-year-old Ramirez, who most recently lost a decision to Barboza last November, as a beatable fighter. But Haney, Mirigian says, despite being 26, in prime physical form and still technically unbeaten, is vulnerable in his own way.

“I'm talking about the mental part of this,” he said. “Like, we're in a different age. Social media has kids committing suicide. It creates depression. It does all of these things that fighters didn't have to deal with before.”

The public misunderstands, or simply isn’t aware of, the psychological damage that can be done in a technology-driven media age, Mirigian said. An unflattering editorial in a newspaper or magazine, or a confrontational TV interview was a drop in the bucket for yesteryear’s fighter. For Haney, that drop has been a deluge.

“It's different when it's in your phone the second you wake up and there's 900 comments and memes about you looking like a zombie falling to the floor. For me, what that poor kid has had to endure and is enduring still, I don't think that's overcome easily – if at all.

“Let's just be honest: I mean, it would be hard for any of us. Look, I have people that I gotta read, ‘Rich this’ and ‘Rich is ruining that fight’ and ‘Rich is fucking out for himself.’ And I read all that stuff. Does it bother me a little bit? Yeah. But what if it was done on the magnitude of what Haney gets hit with and I had some raving superstar talking down to me every single day, like Ryan, and a million of his followers. I don't know if I could handle it. I’d cave.”

At the same time, Garcia, 26, is fighting his own battles. He has been outspoken about his mental health issues, and even if some critics (including this one) may find them to be a convenient excuse for being young, dumb and full of oneself, these aren’t high crimes. The vast majority of humankind has been able to work out our mid-20s nonsense under the shelter of relative obscurity. Garcia, Mirigian said, has been shaped – both good and bad – by the hyper-online world around him.

“The things people say, people wishing that they would die – look, these kids hold on to a lot. … I like Ryan. I think we need him in the sport. But I don't think that Ryan's as crazy as people think. I think his environment has shaped his mental well-being and the attacks and the barrage of stuff that he endures, it's what makes these guys act the way they do.”

Mirigian highlights the reaction to the lawsuit filed against Garcia, which he says backfired. Whether legal action was pursued out of a sense of justice – which Haney objectively deserved – or as a negotiating tactic cooked up by his team, “the public’s roar,” as Mirigian described it, was Haney’s to bear the brunt of on his own.

“That same high and dopamine rush that they got before when things were good, it goes away fast,” he said. “It turns into almost hate crimes, the things people say, people wishing that they’d die.”

Floyd Mayweather Jnr learned to thrive off bad press and ugly public sentiment, channeling it into his persona and promotions, and even arguably harnessing it for profit. Yet he only dipped a toe into the modern social media era before retiring from fighting and, for the most part, the public eye. And, as Mirigian noted, “There'll never be another Mayweather.”

Neither Haney nor Garcia needs to be Mayweather. Each achieving self-actualized versions of themselves, as fighters and people, would more than do. If only boxing would let them.Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.