“Bob [Arum] re-signed Haney two nights before fight” – Paulie Malignaggi

By Robert Segal: Paulie Malignaggi revealed today that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had re-signed Devin Haney “two nights” before he defended his undisputed lightweight championship against Vasyl Lomaachenko last Saturday.

Although Malignaggi didn’t say that Haney’s win over Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) was the result of him extending his contract with Arum’s Top Rank, the way he was grinning from ear to ear when he mentioned this information seemed to be him implying that the victory because of him staying with the company.

If true, what’s unclear is why Arum and Haney didn’t mention the contract extension before or after the fight with Lomachenko. It would have made sense for this information to be announced ahead of the fight because fans would have wanted to know, particularly the ones placing bets on the outcome.

Malignaggi mentioned that there’s “more of a future” with the 24-year-old Haney holding the undisputed lightweight championship than the 35-year-old Lomachenko. That goes without saying.

Business-wise, it’s better for Haney to have won the fight last Saturday night than Lomachenko for these reasons:

• American
• Las Vegas resident
• Still young at 24
• Adopting the “villain” role to sell fights
• Well-spoken
• Has Mayweather’s fighting style
• Dresses stylishly with the gold chains & 24K teeth
• Flaunts his new wealth
• Braggart – very good at self-promoting
• Size to move to 140, 147 & 154

Boxing community thinks Haney lost

“I think the reaction of the whole boxing community speaks for itself,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Fighthype about last weekend’s highly criticized victory by Devin Haney over Vasyl Lomachenko.

“I was going to praise Haney for some of the things he did well last night because Haney surprised me with some of the things he did well better than I expected him to, but he still lost the fight.

“It was as clear as day that he lost the fight,” Malignaggi continued about the undisputed lightweight champion Haney, who was given a 12-round unanimous decision against Lomachenko.

“Everybody knows he lost the fight. In fact, everybody in boxing with the exception of maybe one or two people, it’s almost unanimous at this point that everybody thought he lost the fight and was losing the fight.

“It’s boxing politics. There’s more of a future for a 24-year-old undisputed champion than there is for a 35-year-old, and unfortunately, the business of boxing doesn’t have any respect.

“It doesn’t discriminate. It will jam it in you regardless of what reputation you have. If you’re really generous, you can score it a draw. If you scored it anything more than a draw, you’re a scumbag,” said Malignaggi.

Judges giving Haney rounds he didn’t deserve

“I think if you gave Haney every round that he does something in, including rounds where Loma does more than him, but Haney still did some things because you don’t just score rounds because the other guy did something,” Malignaggi said. “Sometimes the other guy does more.

“There are rounds where Loma did everything, and he won those rounds, but there are also rounds where Loma did more than Haney, but Haney did some things. Then there are rounds where Haney won the rounds.

“So if you give Haney rounds where he did a little bit, but he still didn’t do enough to win the rounds, but he did some work, so you find an excuse, ‘Oh, I like that he did that, so I’ll give him the round.’

“Even though it’s not enough, but you’re looking for a reason to give Haney a round, which is not the way you’re supposed to score a fight anyway. Then you can max give him [Haney] six rounds maximum.

“If you find seven rounds under that criteria to give him the rounds, then you’re a dirt scumbag, and you were rooting for Haney from the start, and it was obvious. The biggest proof was recently, someone sent me a screenshot of the round-by-round,” Paulie said.

Arum re-signed Haney 2 nights before fight

“The actions on the lines really reflect on the public and the public opinion about how things are going,” Malignaggi said. “Lomachenko, at the first bell, started the fight at +200 after starting at +275 initially. So all the late money was coming in for Lomachenko.

“More importantly, at the start of round twelve, Lomachenko was minus 500. I’m 100% serious. So you can give opinions left and right, but those numbers are irreplaceable and do not lie.

“To move the line from +200 to -500 that means all the live money is coming in for Lomachenko because everybody and their moms, too think Lomachenko is winning the fight. So everybody can give you their opinions now, which most of them are for Lomachenko anyway, but even you dirtbag out there, I know why you, let’s be honest, let’s be frankly honest, let’s go where nobody wants to go.

“The small percentage of people that had Haney winning the fight and are happy that he got the decision are happy the white guy lost. That’s it.

“That’s the small percentage of people, because even most everybody, black, white, Spanish, everybody I’ve talked to and you see them in public and you see them publicly stating things all have Lomachenko winning the fight.

“If you still have Haney winning the fight, besides the three judges, which we know are in the bag, right? Aside from them, and I got one more little tidbit. I’ll bring it to you here. Bob [Arum of Top Rank] re-signed Haney two nights before the fight,” said Malignaggi.