Devin Haney says a fight between him and Gervonta Davis will be a “throwback” fight without a rehydration clause or a catchweight at 140 lbs if it’s to happen.
Based on Tank’s reaction to Haney’s refusal to use a catchweight or rehydration clause for a fight, it seems unlikely the two will ever meet inside the ring without Devin changing his mind.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs), a super middleweight-sized fighter, wants to rehydrate as high as he pleases, allowing himself to be comfortable at his fighting weight for a clash against the 135-lb fighter Gervonta, which could see him coming into the fight at 165 lbs with a 20+ lb weight advantage.
Haney refuses catchweight or rehydration clause for Tank fight
Devin feels that fighters from the bygone eras didn’t use catchweights and rehydration clauses in their fights, so he shouldn’t either. The idea is that Tank shouldn’t mind fighting a much bigger guy three to four divisions heavier than him, so he should just forget about weight and fight for the sake of it – and for business purposes.
With Haney being much bigger, a fight between him and Tank Davis would be a business event type of contest, but necessarily sporting one involving fairness or an outcome that would have a true meaning on who is the best in the 140-lb weight class.
Tank isn’t a light welterweight, and neither is Haney, for that matter. His weight indicates he’s at super middleweight.
“I’m not doing no catchweight, I’m not doing no rehydration clause, I’m the champion at 140 lbs. We’re doing throwback boxing: the best fight the best where I’m 100%, he’s 100%, and may the best man win. No excuses,” said Devin Haney to Thaboxingvoice, on his refusal to fight Gervonta Davis with weight stipulations.
He fails to acknowledge that the old school fighters from other generations weren’t competing 30 lbs above their weigh-in weight, trying to game the system by having a massive size advantage over their opposition to help them win.
Haney is weighing in well below his natural size and then somehow rehydrating enormous amounts overnight to use his massive weight and frame to defeat his smaller opposition.
“He didn’t put [Mario] Barrios under no rehydration clause or none of that, or maybe he did. I don’t know,” said Haney, talking about when Gervonta moved up to 140 and fought then-secondary WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios in June 2021, stopping him in the eleventh round.
There was reportedly a rehydration clause for the Tank vs. Barrios fight. Barrios wasn’t a fighter rehydrating 25 lbs to 165 for his fights at light welterweight. Even if there weren’t weight stipulations, that doesn’t change the situation.
Tank Davis, understandably, wants a rehydration clause & catchweight for a fight with Haney, and if he chooses to dig his feet in the sand, refusing, he won’t get the payday. It’s as simple as that.
“We’re doing throwback boxing where I’m 100%, he’s 100%, and we get it on and may the best man win,” said Haney. “We’re not trying to handicap one fighter where I’m not at my best or he’s not at his best. Listen, he [Gervonta] fought at 140, he knocked out Mario Barrios. Mario Barrios [is now] at 147.”
Many boxing fans viewed Barrios as a paper champion at 140, a secondary title-holder, a badly flawed one, who wasn’t going to stay a champ for long.
We saw how bad Barrios looked, losing to the old, washed & inactive Keith Thurman last year, losing every round against a fighter that hadn’t fought in close to three years.
Thurman got off his coach after years of inactivity and whipped Barrios with ease in a fight that wasn’t competitive. That match showed how flawed Barrios was, so it doesn’t matter that Tank Davis beat that guy at 140 because he wasn’t one of the talented fighters.
“I think that’s likely. My team has pushed for that, and that’s one of the fights that we’re entertaining,” said Haney about him possibly going up to 147 to fight Barrios, who is coming off a win over an inactive & shot-looking 37-year-old Yordenis Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) last September.
Ugas hasn’t fought in 16 months since his stoppage loss to Errol Spence Jr. in 2022. Barrios had the perfect guy for him to get a victory at 147, as Ugas took a beating against Spence and suffered a bad eye injury.
“I think it could happen. It’s just got to make sense on my end and his end,” said Haney about a fight with Barrios.
Devin expects to fight in Middle east soon
“I’m going to go out there. I’ve got some meetings lined up,” said Haney about him going out to the Middle East. “I’ve got a good relationship with a lot of the big guys in the Middle East, especially with me being Muslim.
“They gravitate towards me; I gravitate towards them and my brothers & sisters over there in the Middle East. So, I think sooner or later, I’ll be fighting over there,’ said Haney.
You can understand why Haney would want to fight in Saudi Arabia because the money he would get would be gigantic. If they don’t require him to face a talented guy like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, Tim Tszyu, David Benavidez, or David Morrell, that’s even better for him.
Fighting Barrios in Saudi Arabia would be a dream for Devin because it’s an easy fight on paper, but obviously, it would be a different story if the Saudis insisted that Haney fight Boots Ennis to earn his money. In that case, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him refuse.
Haney obviously knows his limitations. Even with a likely 15 lb weight advantage over the 147-lb Boots, Haney would be out of his league.
Devin has got it down to the tee with his ability to drain to smaller weights and rehydrate overnight, putting on much water weight without impacting his performance.
You can bet that other fighters will want to get with Haney’s weight management person, whoever that is, and have him assist them in draining down tons of weight to compete in three to four divisions below their size so they can excel the way he is.
Some fans view Haney as cheating and being a weight bully. Since he can’t beat fighters his size at super middleweight like David Benavidez, David Morrell, or Caleb Plant, he drains down to fight against smaller opposition at 140.
