By Jim Calfa: Devin Haney insists that the 75/25 offer that he made to his WBC lightweight mandatory Shakur Stevenson wasn’t his way of ducking him to avoid what would have been a risky fight.
Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) says the offer to Shakur was genuine, and if he believed in himself, he would have agreed to it because if he won, he’d have had all the belts at 135.
This is what many fans are saying as well, and it appears that Shakur let his shortsighted greed get in the way of reason, preventing him from seeing the big picture.
Now, instead of Shakur fighting for the undisputed championship at 135, he’s fighting for a solitary belt, battling Edwin De Los Santos next month for the vacant WBC lightweight title on November 16th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
What’s interesting is that Shakur thinks he’s coming out ahead by rejecting Haney’s offer and fighting for one belt against De Los Santos. This is a classic example of pride preventing growth.
Instead of seeing the offer from Haney as an opportunity to expand his career, Shakur let his pride get in the way. Top Rank might end up having a hard time trying to turn Shakur into a star if he’s going to sabotage negotiations left & right.
Haney willing to fight the best
“Yeah, I still keep my belts there for a reason. I’ve asked the sanctioning bodies so I can have my belts there,” said Devin Haney to the media about him making sure the four sanctioning bodies allow him to freeze his lightweight titles.
It’ll be interesting to see if Mayweather Promotions & PBC stick to their formula for marinating fights for years & years now that Showtime will no longer be putting on boxing events at the end of the year.
Haney wants to fight Gervonta Davis now, not six years later, like Floyd Mayweather. If PBC moves over to Amazon Prime, you can bet that the top brass with that company won’t agree with their formula of marinating fights because that model will guarantee poor ratings due to the many mismatches.
“Those fights [Gervonta Davis & Shakur Stevenson] could happen in the future, but my main focus is Regis Prograis to become a two-division world champion,” said Haney.
“I’m willing to fight the best fighters in the world. I’ve been saying this for a while now, so I’m not picking fights. I’m trying to fight the best fighters in the world.
“Shakur knows what time it is with me. He knows that my offer was legitimate, and if he really believed in himself and if he believed that I was everything that he claimed that I was, he would have taken the fight,” said Haney in reacting to Shakur Stevenson saying that his 75-25 offer to him was a way to duck the fight.”
Shakur’s pride has become his enemy, as it led him to refuse a 75/25 split and sabotaged his career. It’s not the first time he has messed up negotiations, and it’s likely that he will continue to do so.
If he doesn’t change his ways, Top Rank may have to consider parting ways with him. On top of that, his fighting style is often criticized for being boring and too focused on safety, reminiscent of Mayweather’s style.
“It was the most money that he would have ever made in all his fights put together with that 25%, and that’s facts, that’s 100%. If he felt like I was so easy, so green, whatever he says, then he would have taken the fight, and he would have had a shot at the undisputed [lightweight] titles like I did,” said Haney about Shakur.
Devin returning to the Bay Area
“That’s cool. It’s boxing,” said Haney when asked about his thoughts on Floyd Mayweather Jr. potentially fighting an exhibition match on the same night as his fight with Prograis on December 9th on Showtime.
Mayweather’s exhibition match hasn’t been announced for December 9th, so it’s possible that it won’t happen. It would be foolish for Mayweather to place a PPV event on the same night as Haney’s fight with Prograis.
Unless Floyd has lost his senses entirely, he needs to move off that date and look for when there’s nothing going on to stage one of his exhibition matches against another YouTuber or a washed MMA guy.
Keith Thurman & Danny Garcia are supposed to fighting on the undercard, and they probably won’t be pleased about the idea of competing with the Prograis-Haney event.
“Floyd has been in the sport for a while now,” said Haney. “It’s my time. Whether he’s fighting on that night or not, I think a lot of people still are going to tune in because this is a real fight [Haney vs. Prograis] right here this is a real fight. This is big-time boxing, the best fighting the best.
“I’m bringing it back to the Bay Arena. I’m happy that it’s coming to fruition, and I’m excited to put on a great performance and see the Bay Arena come out and support.”
9,000 tickets have already been solid for the Haney vs. Prograis event at the Chase Center in San Franciso. It seats 18,064 fans, so there’s a real possibility that the event could sell out entirely by the time December 9th rolls around, which would be a huge positive for Haney.
“I’m finally going to have my people there to support me. I’ve been getting booed, and the crowds have been against me for some fights now. So it feels good that I’m going have that support with my people embracing me, but I still got to go in there and take care of business,” said Haney.
It’s surprising that Haney hasn’t fought in San Francisco until now, as he’s got so much potential for bringing in large crowds in that massive city. Haney hasn’t been a big ticket seller during his career while fighting in his adopted city of Las Vegas, so he should have made the move back home to San Francisco a long time ago.
