I think the bold is an unfounded assumption. We see fighters get progressively better through fights all the time even when they make weight. There are a dozen reasons for why a fighter can start out slow.
At the end of the day, I watched the fight and it didn't look like a conditioning thing. It looked more like he put Haney down, and Haney wasn't really able to recover. That's something we see a lot in boxing too.
Again, from a business standpoint, I understand what you guys are saying. However, from a competitive standpoint, I couldn't operate like that. If somebody has a win over me (official or not) and I think I'm the better fighter, I want to get out there and prove that. Ryan can't use Haney to rebuild his credibility if Haney beats his ass. If Haney can do to Ryan what Haney says he can do, then that will more or less prove to most people that the drugs were the only reason that Ryan was competitive.