Eddie Hearn says WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney may choose to defend against his mandatory Sandor Martin in his first defense or possibly go up to welterweight.
Hearn didn’t say who Haney would fight at 147, but his dad, Bill, has talked about wanting WBA interim welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
Move up to 147: Barrios Likely Target
If Haney fights Barrios, there’s a possibility it would be for the full WBA title because the current champion, Terence Crawford is expected to vacate.
Barrios is an easy mark, so Haney can become a three-division world champion by defeating him, which would be interesting. It would mean that all three of Haney’s world title wins have come against flawed fighters.
Devin would be in the same boat as Adrien Broner, a fighter who won four division world titles against soft opposition. Haney’s two world title victories have come against these champions:
- Regis Prograis: 35-year-old who was almost beaten by little-known second-tier fighter Danielito Zorrilla in his previous fight before Haney fought him
- George Kambosos Jr.
Mandatory: Sandor Martin
If Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) wants to hold onto his WBC 140-lb title to use it as a bargaining chip for negotiation purposes for a fight against Ryan Garcia or a unification against Teofimo Lopez, he’s going to need to defend against his overdue mandatory Sandor next.
However, Devin can always pay Sandor a step aside if he wants to put off making that defense, but he would be just kicking his problem down the road and would eventually have to face him if he wants to hold onto his WBC belt to use it as a bargaining tool.
It’s worthless for Haney to keep his WBC title because it’s not going to help his situation for negotiations with Ryan Garcia, because he would still have his poor PPV numbers from the Prograis fight that would spoil his attempts to play A-side.
Hearn’s frustration
“I don’t think it was a terrible decision, but I think the fans are disappointed because Haney vs. Garcia is a tremendous fight. But I’m sure Ryan Garcia looked at Devin Haney and said, ‘That is a really tough fight. I can beat Rolly Romero, so I’m going to fight him to get my belt,'” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing.
“Ismael Barroso is the [WBA] mandatory. I’m sure Golden Boy can do a deal with him to step aside to allow Ryan to fight Rolly, but its disappointing because I felt that Ryan Garcia could have given fans a mega-fight against Devin Haney.
“In Ryan’s mind, he deserves the lion’s share of that pot, but Devin Haney is the undisputed world champion; he’s a two-division world champion. People want to talk rubbish about 35,000 buys and 50,000 buys; it’s all rubbish and narrative. But it’s easy to do that to make an excuse why one shouldn’t fight someone.
“Everyone saw the arena in San Francisco, 16,000 sellout, the event was a huge success. It’s very easy to spin a narrative on why you don’t want to fight someone,” said Hearn.
The rumors are that many of the tickets for the Haney vs. Prograis fight were comps, with the seats being given away for free to give the appearance of a sold-out Chase Center.
