By Adam Baskin: The WBC’s deadline is today for lightweight champion Devin Haney to decide if he’ll stay at 135 to defend against his mandatory challenger Shakur Stevenson or move up to 140 and take on WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis for his title.
Yesterday, Haney seemed unconcerned bout the WBC’s deadline, smiling while saying on social media, “One more day.”
With the way, Haney said that, it seemed like he doesn’t care about the deadline, as if he no longer cares about keeping the WBC belt. He might feel that it doesn’t matter if he’s stripped of his WBC lightweight title because he’ll still make a mountain of money fighting someone.
Does Haney have a big fight in the works?
If Haney has a fight against Teofimo Lopez or Gervonta Davis in the works, that might explain why he seems so nonchalant about the WBC’s deadline.
What seems obvious is that Haney wants no part of the risk involved with fighting his WBC mandatory Shakur (20-0, 10 KO) because of A. It’s not a big-money fight. B. The risk is high.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that Haney could be given the WBC Franchise tag that is given out to champions that want to avoid taking on a dangerous challenger that might beat them.
We saw Canelo Alvarez receive a Franchise years ago when he had Jermall Charlo breathing down his neck at 160 as his WBC mandatory. That was back when Jermall was still an active fighter and well before he went off the grid in a dormant stage.
With Haney, you can’t rule out him asking to be given the Franchise tag because he could avoid Shakur while still remaining the undisputed champion.
What could spoil things for Haney is if Shakur is made WBO mandatory for his belt, but that still might not get in the way of him holding that title long enough to defend it against someone else. The WBO will likely give Haney a short deadline like the WBC is doing.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said earlier this week that Friday is the deadline for Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) to make his decision on staying at 135 for the Shakur fight as the undisputed champion or going up to 140 to face Prograis as a challenger.
Most fans believe that Haney will avoid the Shakur fight, relinquish his four lightweight titles and move up to 140 to take on the beatable Prograis.
Haney would be going in the path of least resistance by fighting the 34-year-old Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs), as he looked old & shot in his recent title defense against Danielito Zorrilla.
