Devin Haney has achieved extraordinary success in boxing at a tender age. On Saturday at the Chase Center in San Francisco, he'll challenge Regis Prograis for Prograis' WBC super lightweight championship. This comes on the heels of winning the undisputed lightweight championship at age 23.
He's 7-0 in world title fights, though the first of those was for an interim belt. He's one of the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world and only in his last fight, a lightweight title defense in Las Vegas on May 20 against Vasiliy Lomachenko, was there even any question about the outcome.
He's sought big fights, taken the ones that have been presented to him and jumped promoters in order to find the best.
He's not the most exciting fighter in the world -- he's 30-0 with 15 knockouts, but hasn't had a KO or TKO since Sept. 13, 2019 -- but the flip side of that is that no one has been able to deal with his boxing skills and force him to go toe-to-toe. Lomachenko did a bit, but that was more of a tactical fight than a slugfest.
Haney, though, doesn't feel the love. If everything in his career were the same except that he was a big knockout artist, he'd be one of the most popular fighters in the sport. But as a defensive-minded boxer, he hasn't gone over big with the fan base.
"People love to hate me, and I don’t know what it is, but I embrace it now," Haney said. "I’m me. What can i do? It wouldn’t be right if they were any other way. If they were showing me too much love, I’d be saying, ‘What’s up with these guys? Don’t they think i am the real deal?’ It is what it is. They hate the greats and then afterwards, they respect them and applaud them. I know what type of fighter I am. I am secure in myself, and I am going to keep beating whoever they put in front of me one by one."
He's had some bumps in the road -- In 2020, referring to Lomachenko, he said no 'white boy' would ever beat him and then had to do damage control -- but he's largely steered clear of trouble. When his father/trainer, Bill, was unable to get a visa to enter Australia for his first fight with George Kambosos last year, he reacted calmly and professionally.
The perception of Floyd Mayweather toward the end of his career was as a defensive fighter who had no power and didn't like to be hit. Mayweather was a very good offensive fighter early in his career -- Witness his five-knockdown performance in a 2001 TKO of Diego Corrales -- who fought more defensively as his career expanded.
But watch a young Mayweather take apart Genaro Hernandez and dismantle Angel Manfredy and tell me he wasn't a good offensive fighter. In all good conscience, you can't do that.
Haney, though, hasn't had that kind of offensive skill that once defined Mayweather. He's not a big or sharp puncher and he'll use his legs to avoid exchanges unless it's at all possibility.
He's in his prime at 25 heading into the fight with Prograis, who seems to have lost a step or two since his peak. Prograis is 34 and hasn't seemed as sharp as he did early in his career, which is why Haney is around a 4-1 favorite. Haney is -400 and Prograis is +300 at DraftKings.
If Prograis can dial back the clock, this will be a great barometer of where Haney stands. Haney was having great difficulty making the lightweight limit of 135 pounds, and given an extra five pounds at super lightweight, he figures to be quicker and stronger.
Bill Haney predicted a knockout in a ridiculously long exchange during the pre-fight news conference that did not much for anyone, but he also said it was a fight his son sought.
"We called promoter Eddie Hearn [about making a fight with Prograis] because this is something that is going to bring out something special in Devin," Bill Haney said.
Bringing something special out of Haney is the dream of every fight fan. The Lomachenko fight is the only one in which he’s been pushed.
But there are a lot of big fights for him, starting Saturday with Prograis. Guys like Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, and Subriel Matias are among those at or around his weight that could make electric fights with Haney.
Now, though, is the time for Haney to step up and prove his point. He's not much of a talker, but his father talks enough for five people, and he delivers bold words on the regular.
It's time for Devin to back up those words and there's no better time than when he steps into the ring with a big puncher like Prograis.