It's hard for Haney to become better than Mayweather because he lacks the power. Mayweather was a knockout artist during his younger years as a champion. Haney has zero knockouts and stoppages when he became a world champion. It's just difficult for light punchers to keep climbing weights because opponents are getting bigger and they can risk of getting hit just to land their own power shots.
Ryan while being over 3 pounds overweight was battling not just Haney but also the referee, the judge and there's also corrupt WBC not following the tradition of vacating the belt.
I would agree, most world champions stick to knocking people out in their younger and more amateur years, Pacquiao being one of the few notable ones that really kept the knockout boxing style type even when they've grown to become a veteran boxing champion, but I digress, unless Haney does something to change his boxing style to be more of a powerful type, one that's based in strength and speed and not putting out the most points in matches like a fucking wuss, cause fighters and the boxing screen meta's becoming a little more crass and more unforgiving to these types of boxers nowadays. Which is also why Floyd wouldn't get back to fighting officially anymore, he knows that the game has changed and if he goes back doing the same sticky punches gameplan he's had since forever, he's going to lose.
Ryan really proved himself in the bout too, a lot of people hating on him due to his issues that surfaced to social media and he still put up a great fight that we could remember for the years to come? That's only something Ryan would do. I know he's got something going for himself back then, and he's slowly proving himself and is establishing a legacy.