Bill Haney claims Tank Davis turned down $20M for Devin fight

Image: Bill Haney claims Tank Davis turned down $20M for Devin fight
By Robbie Bannatyne - 12/16/2023 - Comments

Bill Haney says Gervonta Davis has turned down a guaranteed $20 million purse for a fight with Devin Haney. However, Tank states he never got the $20M offer, and Bill needs to contact his manager, Al Haymon, if he’s serious.

(Photo credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom or Melina Pizano/Matchroom)

Is this just a publicity stunt by Bill to make Tank Davis look like a cringing, cowardly fighter to force him to the negotiating table?

On social media today, Tank sounded like he’s open to exploring a fight with Haney, but obviously not if Bill is going to be coming up with imaginary offers.

Considering Haney’s recent fight with Regis Prograis brought in a dreadfully poor 50K PPV buys, any promoter would hemorrhage money if they agreed to give Tank Davis a guaranteed $20 million.

Those numbers suggest that Haney isn’t popular enough for Tank to waste his time fighting him. He should look at those numbers, wash his hands of Haney, and move on toward a rematch with Ryan Garcia or Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.

The anemic PPV numbers for the Haney-Prograis fight on DAZN show that Haney isn’t popular enough for a promoter to pay large guaranteed purses.

Haney doesn’t have 11M Instagram followers like Ryan Garcia, and that’s likely where the 1 million PPV buys his fight with Tank came from last April. In contrast, Haney only has 2.6M followers on Instagram, and he’s not well known by casual boxing fans in the U.S.

More smoke & mirrors from Bill

Unfortunately, the $20M sounds like another make-believe number from Devin’s dad, Bill Haney, like the $4 million IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias had supposedly asked for.

That yarn that Bill spun about the $4M that Matias was demanding was present to be false, and fans believe that his rationale for coming up with that story was to stop fans from pressuring Haney to face the powerful Matias (20-1, 20 KOs) next.

The $20 million offer to Tank sounds too fishy to be true, especially given that’s it been denied.

“I’m talking to you, the ex-face of boxing. This is the Devin Haney era,” said Bill Haney on Instagram. “Bro, you turned down $20 million guaranteed. $20 million, bro. Are you serious, bro?”

Depending on your view of Tank, you either believe what Bill says about him turning down $20 million, or you see this as another example of him weaving illusions with his story-telling.

“These n***as is p***y. If they wanna make the fight happen, tell them they know who to call. They’re broke. I’m supposed to get on the phone with Al [Haymon] tonight to talk to him about what these n***** are talking about,” said Gervonta Davis on Instagram.

“You see, Eddie [Hearn] has been in my DMs. No, I want your boss. If they want to make the fight happen, they know who to call, and I’m by the phone. All of them.”

Hearn wants to make offer to Tank

“I spoke to Bill Haney. We’ve already got some big offers in place for Haney against Tank, and I just wanted to see if there was a chance to discuss that fight,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Kingdom Media, talking about his sending a DM to Tank Davis on Friday.

“He said, ‘No.’ There were a few other bits, he said, but he decided not to post those bits. The reason I approached Gervonta Davis is because I want to make him a massive offer for the Devin Haney fight. But if he’s not interested in the fight and doesn’t want to discuss it, I just went back to Bill, ‘This was his [Tank] response.'”

Hearn needs to talk to Haymon if he wants to make offers to Tank Davis, because that’s the guy that he wants to handle his negotiations.

“I think they’re frustrated as well, but talk’s talk. It’ll be good to have an honest conversation behind closed doors and talk business about that potential fight. I believe so. I don’t believe he has a promotional deal with anybody,” said Hearn about Gervonta.

“I know he’s got his own promotional company, but like I said. I’ve got some big offers to make on that fight, but if he doesn’t want to discuss it, we’ll wait until later in the year,” said Hearn.

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