Eddie Hearn said Devin Haney wanted to be paid well for his tune-up fight and not the kind of money that those types of matches typically pay. He feels that BLK Prime might have been willing to pay Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) the kind of money he wanted.
Pricey Tune-up
According to Hearn, Devin still wants the money that would be paid for compelling fights that the fans want to see. That’s unrealistic for a gimme tune-up fight designed to get the rust out, showcase him against a fodder opponent, and raise his confidence.
Hearn says that Turki Al-Shiekh wants big fights, and that’s not in line with what Haney needs with a tune-up to prepare him for a rematch with Ryan Garcia. If Devin faced a good opponent on Turki’s card, there’s a good chance she’d lose if it were a halfway decent guy with a little pop in his punches.
Turki likely wouldn’t feed Haney a soft job like George Kambosos Jr., Regis Prograis, or Jorge Linares. He would want real quality as Jaron Ennis, Richardson Hitchins, Eimantas Stanionis, or Brian Norman Jr. All those fighters would probably beat Haney in style.
Hearn told Boxingscene that Haney wasn’t the type of guy who would have been willing to accept $500,000 to $1 million for a tune-up. He “wanted to be paid well” for a fight that typically wouldn’t rate that kind of dough.
“For the amount of money he wants to have a comeback fight, that’s not easy because, generally, a comeback fight isn’t a great fight. Who’s going to pay for it? If you can find someone to pay great money for a comeback fight, maybe that’s BLK Prime.”
This suggests that Haney still views himself as a big name or a champion despite him coming off a loss to Ryan Garcia in a three-knockdown, 12-round majority decision loss on April 20th last year. The New York State Athletic Commission later overturned the defeat due to Ryan’s positive test for the banned PED Ostarine, but fans still saw it as a loss.
Haney didn’t remotely resemble a champion or a top-10-level fighter against Garcia, and definitely not a guy that deserves to be “paid well” for a tune-up.
It’ll be interesting to see who Devin fights on BLK Prime on March 25th. Will they let him fight a tomato can and pay him top dollar, or will they insist on value for their money? If so, Haney will probably lose and mess up his chances for the rematch with Garcia unless he’s willing to fight him coming off a defeat. I wouldn’t put it past Kingry to do that because he doesn’t seem interested in taking risky fights, either.
“March, I’m back,’ said Devin Haney on X. BLK then replied, “See you on March 25 on BLK Prime.”
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