DEVIN HANEY‘S CAREER is potentially at a crossroads.
The fact that the 26-year-old former undisputed lightweight champion finds himself in this position is unique considering that most fighters Haney’s age haven’t come close to his accomplishments.
But 19 months ago, Haney’s ascent in the boxing world was altered by Ryan Garcia‘s left hook. Haney hit the canvas three times in a fight that was ultimately declared a no-contest due to Garcia failing a drug test.
But the damage was done. Haney’s critics debated his status as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, even though, technically, he didn’t suffer a loss.
On Saturday, Haney will stand across the ring from another young fighter with a dangerous left hook in Brian Norman as he looks to close the chapter on what conspired at Barclays Center in April 2024.
“This fight is super important because this is a guy who they say is my kryptonite,” Haney told ESPN. “They say that he has a left hook, he’s powerful, he’s big, he’s everything. So, a win means everything to me. I’ll be a champion again, and it puts me back on top where I once was.”
One of the reasons Haney finds himself in this position is that his stock has taken a hit over the last two years with his outing against Garcia and a lackluster win over Jose Ramirez in May. A win over Norman, ESPN’s No. 1-ranked welterweight, would help take focus off the past and put Haney right back at the top of another division. However, a loss would be absolutely devastating to his career, well before he hits his physical prime.
The worst night of Haney’s career was salvaged when the decision loss to Garcia was overturned to a no contest after Gacia tested positive for the performance enhancing drug Ostarine. However, the visual of Haney getting routinely crushed by Garcia’s left hook is what everyone remembers. Haney now stepping into the ring with a fighter who arguably has a bigger punch than Garcia is either incredibly courageous or terribly misguided.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t understand why he chose to fight Norman,” Sergio Mora, former world champion turned commentator, told ESPN. “When you’re coming off the worst night of your life against Ryan Garcia and then looked shell-shocked in your next fight against Jose Ramirez, why would you fight the hardest puncher at welterweight? This tells me that Haney has something to prove and wants to shut everyone up.
“Honestly, I think he’s in trouble. However, if Haney takes care of this guy, then everyone will be back on the Haney train. He knows what he’s doing. I just don’t know if I agree with it.”
OVER THE PAST several years, Haney has dealt with a constant barrage of criticism regardless of what he does inside the squared circle and who he calls out for a fight. He was tagged with the label “e-mail champion” when, after Vasiliy Lomachenko opted not to fight him, Haney was elevated to full champion by the WBC in 2019. It’s a criticism that Mora said is unwarranted.
“He’s not the first fighter to win a vacant title but he received more criticism for it than anyone else,” Mora said. “But look what he did after that. He went to George Kambosos’ backyard and beat him, twice. Then he fought and beat Lomachenko in a close fight against a pound-for-pound great. Sometimes, people hate to see winners, and all he does is win.”
As a decorated undefeated fighter, Haney should be the hunted. Instead, he relishes the role of hunter.
“I practice what I preach,” Haney said. “All I want is to fight the best fighters in the world. Everybody that I’ve called out, once they said they want to fight me, the fight then gets made … A lot of these fighters don’t do what I do. They call each other out for attention and clout. I call fighters out to make fights happen.”
And every time his stock appeared to be on the decline, Haney rose to the occasion with a performance that quelled the doubters. Whether that was the pair of one-sided beatings he handed Kambosos in Australia in 2022 or the pitch-perfect shutout of former champion Regis Prograis the following year, Haney has had a way of silencing the naysayers.
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Haney said about the criticism lobbed at him. “All I want to do is keep beating the best fighters in the world. I have accomplished a lot, I’m still young but I’ve been at the top for a while now and I plan to be here for a very long time. They can say whatever they want, and I’ll keep doing what I do.”
But for every Kambosos and Prograis outing, there’s a Garcia or Lomachenko fight that brings his pound-for-pound status into question again and has people asking if Haney is as good as he says he is.
“People love to hate me,” Haney said in a 2023 interview with DAZN. “I don’t know what it is. I embrace it now. What can I do? I am me.”
HANEY IS BOTH brash and flashy outside the ring. And while he’s a technically sound fighter, he’s not necessarily exciting inside the ring, something that has drawn comparisons to all-time great Floyd Mayweather. But that style is largely dependent on winning and staying unbeaten.
“Over the past few years, he has gone on a Mayweather résumé trajectory by fighting champion after champion,” Mora said, referring to Haney’s fights against Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, Jorge Linares and Yuriorkis Gamboa. “Like Mayweather, he’s also more of a boxer than a puncher. He may not be blessed with power but he’s willing to face the power punchers. Sometimes people hate to see guys who can box on a supreme level. But if you’re going to fight with that style and you’re going to live that life and be flashy, be prepared for the criticism because people cannot wait to see you lose.”
Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter believes how Haney projects himself to the public is not consistent with his performances in the ring.
“The criticism comes because he presents himself to be one thing and people are calling him out and demanding him to be what he says he is,” Porter told ESPN. “He’s flashy and presents himself as flawless, but there are still a lot of questions that Devin Haney has not answered.”
Haney was anointed a part of this era’s “Four Kings,” along with Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Teofimo Lopez and Garcia (with Shakur Stevenson hovering around as well). Their collective rise drew a parallel to the legendary quartet of Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran, whose Hall of Fame careers overlapped each other’s physical primes in the 1980s. Unfortunately, this era’s foursome haven’t lived up to the motif like their predecessors, who fought each other over the years. To date, Haney has fought only Garcia. Also, the “Four Kings” had distinctive qualities that made them stand out. For all that Haney has accomplished, there isn’t a description to pin on the young champion.
He isn’t the defensive wizard that Stevenson is, nor does he possess the debilitating power of Davis. He doesn’t have the reflexes and brilliant counterpunching of Lopez, and he can’t quite match the whipping hand speed of Garcia. He is “straight up and down, no special effects,” as Mayweather would say. A jack of all trades and a master of none. However, what doesn’t necessarily stand out to the naked eye is exactly what makes Haney unique.
“His greatest quality was his instincts, but that may be something that isn’t there anymore,” said Porter, who sparred with Haney years ago. “His secret power was that he instinctively knew what to throw, when to throw it and how to move. He lost a lot of that when he fought the wrong fight against Garcia. His ego got the better of him, and he forgot who he was. He needs to find that again when he fights Norman.”
Haney was a prohibitive betting favorite to beat Garcia but admittedly fell victim to mind games, courtesy of Garcia’s behavior heading into the fight. Although his opponent missed weight and was later busted for PEDs, Haney wasn’t prepared for the one thing that everyone knew Garcia was going to throw: the left hook.
“Not knowing how to properly prepare became his worst enemy, along with his ego,” Porter said. “He has all of these tools and instinctively knows what to do. But what happens when those instincts aren’t working? What happens when the basic game plan isn’t working or when he goes against his instincts and fights outside of the game plan? Greatness is about going the extra mile, and I don’t know if he has it in him.”
Mora believes that Haney is still “shell-shocked” from the Garcia fight and is “afraid to get hit,” a terrible combination heading into a fight with a big puncher such as Norman. But that danger is what Haney said excites him about his upcoming fight. Haney isn’t one to run from challenges, and the Garcia fight taught him a valuable lesson about himself.
“You don’t know if a fighter can take a punch until they actually get hit and you don’t know a fighter’s heart until it gets tested,” Haney said. “And when my chin and heart were tested, I showed up. I got up off the floor, not once, not twice, but three times. And I fought back. I didn’t run. I fought like a warrior, and if I was going to go out that night, I was going to go out on my shield.”
MORA AND PORTER disagree whether Saturday’s match is a crossroads fight for Haney. Mora doesn’t think that a loss erases everything that Haney accomplished, while Porter believes that how Haney decides to fight Norman will determine how he is perceived moving forward. Both agree that although a win would get the proverbial monkey off his back, the risk may outweigh the reward.
“What you don’t want to do is give people more fuel to criticize you,” Mora said. “If he gets rocked by Norman but wins, there will still be question marks. He has to be great, almost perfect.”
Porter commends Haney for stepping into the ring with a dangerous champion who doesn’t carry a household name when he could have opted for a softer touch.
But taking a soft touch simply isn’t how Haney operates. Instead of running away from danger, he would rather meet it head-on and see what it has to offer.
“A lot of people fear the unknown,” Haney said. “What if I get hit? What am I going to do? Well, the world knows what I’m going to do. I know what I’m going to do. It’s like a weight off my shoulders just knowing that I’m able to get up when I’m down and knowing that I got a chin. The way that I beat Brian Norman, I think a lot of people are going to have to give me credit for it.”
And if they don’t, he’ll continue to chase greatness to prove them wrong because it’s simply the Devin Haney way.
