By Adam Baskin: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has given Devin Haney a deadline of this Friday, July 21st, to decide if he’s moving up to 140 to challenge WBC champion Regis Prograis or staying at 135 to defend against his mandatory Shakur Stevenson.
However, it looks like Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) has already made it clear that he’s going to be fighting the slow-footed WBC light welterweight champion Prograis next.
Just moments ago, Prograis asked promoter Eddie Hearn, if he’s fighting Haney in November, and Devin chimed in, saying, “October.”
The 34-year-old Prograis was an easy choice for Haney because he looks gunshy, slow on his feet & washed. In Prograis’ last fight, he barely beat Danielito Zorrilla by a twelve round split decision last June. With Devin’s boxing ability and movement, he’ll be a nightmare for the age-depleted Prograis.
Haney & his dad, Bill, are shrewd judges of talent, and they clearly know how to pick them. They obviously spotted the slow feet & advanced age of Prograis and decided that this was the direction to go in rather than take on Shakur.
October https://t.co/A81mkNJGcp
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) July 17, 2023
It’s good that the World Boxing Council finally put Haney’s feet to the fire to force him to decide because if they didn’t make this move, he would have likely continued sitting on his WBC lightweight title, ignoring mandatory Shakur Stevenson rather than agreeing to fight him.
“Friday, July 21st is the deadline for Haney to decide if he’s fighting Prograis or if he’s going to stay in the lightweight division,” said WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to Broadway Joel about the deadline of this Friday for undisputed 135-lb champion Devin Haney to decide if he’ll move up to 140 or stay at lightweight.
“No [voluntary]. Shakur Stevenson is the mandatory in the lightweight division.”
It’s unclear what happened with WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez coming out of retirement last week and saying that he wanted to fight Haney. Maybe that was a moment where Teofimo briefly had some ambition, but it might have left him because he’s gone quiet ever since.
Just in case Haney has a change of mind about fighting Prograis, he’ll still have a deadline to decide if he’s going to face Shakur or vacate the WBC title. One thing we do know is that Haney won’t be fighting Shakur because he’s a bad style match-up for him.
Thus far, Gervonta Davis hasn’t mentioned wanting to fight Haney since getting out of jail, which could indicate that he’s going to go in the direction of a rematch with Isaac Cruz.
