Bob Arum Slams Devin Haney’s “Disgraceful” Performance Against Jose Ramirez, Citing Lack of Incentive for Top Fighters

Bob Arum says Devin Haney’s performance was “disgraceful” against Jose Ramirez in their co-feature fight on May 2nd at Times Square in New York. Top Rank promoter Arum states that with Haney getting “super money” for a rematch with Ryan Garcia in October, he had no incentive to “take risks” against Ramirez by trying to entertain.

Surprisingly, Turki Alalshikh doesn’t appear to have given up on Haney after that performance. He mentioned this week that he’s interested in making the rematch between Ryan and Devin.

Incentives Killing Entertainment

Haney reportedly received $10 million for his fight against Ramirez on the undercard of Ryan vs. Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. That’s a giant purse for an undercard fighter, coming off a loss, taking a tune-up against a veteran with no belt on the line.

With how Haney performed in his three-knockdown loss to Ryan last April, he should have received a much smaller purse. In addition, Devin isn’t a PPV draw. He’s a clincher and a mover with a style similar to Shakur Stevenson’s in terms of being dull for fans to watch. Based on Haney’s non-entertaining style, he should have been paid in the thousands, not millions, for the Ramirez fight. In the real world, when you underperform, you get replaced. You don’t receive raises.

“In the old days, when we had a fighter like Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya, they had a reason to give the crowd a really entertaining fight because their next fight was already agreed to. But they stood to make extra money from the PPV, from the great. So, there was always an incentive for them to look good,” said promoter Bob Arum to the media.

“Now, that incentive is gone because they’ve been promised great money for their next fight. Their only sure way that they’re going to get it is not to engage in a fight. Devin Haney is a very good fighter. You saw the fight with [Jose] Ramirez. That was a disgrace.”

A-Listers Don’t Need to Entertain

Arum explains it well. The fighters that the Saudis deem A-list don’t have any reason to try to entertain because they already have their next fight planned and are getting paid absurd money. They don’t have to try to entertain or promote the fights. All they have to do is win.

“That was an absolute disgrace. But if you’re Devin Haney and you’re getting good money for the fight against Ramirez, and you’re going to get super money to fight [Ryan] Garcia, because he assumed Garcia would win, then why would he take any risks? But that’s not good for boxing. That’s terrible for boxing,” said Arum.