Boxing is always a sport in which the present isn’t good enough. Devin Haney, who is going for legacy, once again, will fight Regis Prograis on December 9th, at The Chase Center in San Francisco, California on DAZN pay-per-view, will look to add being a two-division world champion to his CV along with currently being the undisputed lightweight world champion.
Yet, even with such a meaningful fight in the main event - people (and the media) want more. In this circumstance, despite Haney fighting the toughest bout of his career, in a brief media scrum the idea got floated of ‘what is next?’ Something that both Haney and Eddie Hearn, who is promoting this fight, gave ideas about.
Spoiler alert - it seems that if Haney were to win, the money would be just as much the motive as the legacy in 2024, at least for the time being.
Hearn was very prompt on his intentions after this fight if Haney wins, he believes the next fight is against Golden Boy Promotions superstar, Ryan Garcia, who also fights on DAZN, a network shared as a broadcast partner by Matchroom Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions.
“We’ll make the Ryan Garcia fight [next],” said Hearn in a media scrum on Tuesday. “DAZN knows that the winner of this fight should fight Ryan Garcia. Ryan Garcia is with DAZN, he’s with Golden Boy…That fight is so easy to make right now, and I think whoever wins this fight, if it’s Devin Haney, if it’s Regis Prograis, it’s a February, it’s a March fight in Vegas in Los Angeles against Ryan Garcia, and it’s a massive, massive fight for boxing.”
Devin Haney kept his cards close to his chest as he was unwilling to give an inch about what the future might hold for him. Haney, who is managed and trained by his father, Bill Haney, and been guided masterfully through the boxing ecosystem was clear to not commit to anything after the Prograis fight on December 9th. Haney understood Hearn wanted to make the Garcia fight and issued his thoughts.
“Of course, that is the fight Eddie [Hearn] wants to make,” said Haney in a brief media scrum at the Chase Center. “We got to see [what is next] so many big fights at [lightweight] and [junior welterweight].”
Haney did essentially seem to focus on two names as it appears that Teofimo Lopez and Ryan Garcia are two fights Haney is actively seeking at some point in the future, or at the very least interested in.
“It just comes down to what makes sense,” said Haney when asked how he would decide between a Ryan Garcia or Teofimo Lopez fight. “Those are two huge fights, obviously Teo is more legacy, belts, whatever, whatever, but also I got the belts at [lightweight]. Of course, I want to get the belts, but right now it is what makes the most sense for me.”
Haney also explained why he was independent for most of his career, going the way of co-promoting his fights, as opposed to signing with a major promoter. Not unlike the Bay Area music industry of the 90s and 00s, Haney copied those before him such as the Too Short's and Andre Nickatina's who did a lot of the heavy lifting themselves to equitable pay from major distributors. It seems Haney carefully moved in a way that he could control the big fights he takes rather than a major company.
“That was the goal of doing co-promotional deals [so I could] make the biggest fights happen,” said Haney. “Not letting that ‘across the street’ term stop me from being great.
