By Sean Jones: Bill Haney, the dad of WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney, is having difficulty understanding why mandatory challengers Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr., Ryan Garcia, and Javier Fortuna all chose not to fight for the WBC title.
Jo Jo Diaz (32-1, 15 KOs) earned his WBC mandatory spot last month with a victory over Fortuna in a 135-lb title eliminator on July 9th, but he’s made it clear that he wants Ryan Garcia next.
Bill doesn’t seem to understand why Diaz would pass up a title shot against Haney, but it comes down to money.
Jo Jo’s rationale for taking the fight with Ryan is the money will be better than if he were to challenge Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) for his WBC belt. Being a world champion isn’t what it’s cracked up to be in terms of the money.
If you’ve got the popularity of a fighter like Ryan Garcia, that essentially makes you a champion in the eyes of the fans.
Bill Haney talks Rolly Romero
“Big-time means you step up when it’s time to be big, and that’s one thing you’ve seen with Devin since the beginning,” said Bill Haney to Fighthype when asked about ‘Big time’ fighters like Joseph ‘Jo Jo Diaz Jr and Richard Commey.
“We’re going on our third mandatory that hasn’t stood up. We had Javier Fortuna, Ryan Garcia, and now Jo Jo Diaz just in terms of mandatory.
“We also have loudmouth Rolly Romero that we’re looking for. We know Mayweather Promotions is looking for him, I think.
“I know Devin reached out to Floyd to make that fight happen, seeing that Jo Jo Diaz has everything else to do but negotiate for the world title.
“We have Rolly Romero that is doing a bunch of bad-mouthing. Joseph Diaz said he would knock Haney out. He said that prior to asking for the Javier Fortuna fight.
“He asked for the Javier Fortuna fight, saying Devin Haney was next. When it came time after his win over Javier Fortuna, the first name he mentioned was Ryan Garcia,” said Bill Haney.
Rolly Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) holds the WBA interim lightweight title, and he’s quickly becoming a star even without holding a full belt. You can argue that Romero is already more popular than Haney, so he doesn’t need to fight him to keep growing his fan base.
Mayweather promotions are doing a good job of turning Rolly into a star with the way they’ve been picking his opponents.
Devin’s mandatorys bailing on him
“We know Devin is the WBC world champion,” said Bill Haney. “If you talk about mandatory, you’ve got to talk about the first time in history that I’ve known in modern-day that you have three mandatory that haven’t been willing to get in the ring with him.
“When you talk about their team, they’re actually negotiating with Ryan Garcia,” said Bill Haney about Team Jo Jo Diaz.
“Robert Diaz [of Golden Boy Promotions] admitted that he hadn’t reached out [to Haney to set up a fight with Jo-Jo Diaz]. He hasn’t done anything to make the fight happen with Devin.
“He said from a Golden Boy standpoint; it’s an easier fight to make for Ryan Garcia and Jo Jo Diaz, which is the complete opposite of us fighting a Golden Boy fighter in Jorge Linares.
“Anytime you have a world title and a lot of these young bucks, who haven’t had a world title in terms of Ryan Garcia and you talk about Jo Jo Diaz having a second opportunity in any type of contract, you always make more money when you fight the world champion.
“It’s no secret that Ryan Garcia ducked Devin. It’s easy to say the narrative that you make more money fighting Ryan but do you make more money fighting Ryan?” said Haney.
Bill has got to help his son become a bigger star by working on his fighting style and his social media presence because he’s not been able to take advantage of his status as a world champion the way normal fighters do.
