Eddie Hearn said that Devin Haney wanted to be paid well for his tune-up match and not the kind of money that these types of matches typically pay. He feels BLK Prime might have been willing to pay Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) the kind of money he wanted.
Expensive tune-up
According to Hearn, Devin still wants the money that would be paid for compelling fights that the fans want to see. That’s unrealistic for a gimme-tune-up fight designed to get the rust out, showcase him against a fodder opponent and boost his confidence.
Hearn says Turki Al-Shiekh wants big fights and that’s not in line with what Haney needs with a tune-up to prepare him for a rematch with Ryan Garcia. If Devin faced a good opponent on Turki’s card, there’s a good chance she’d lose if it was a halfway decent guy with a little pop in his punches.
Turki probably wouldn’t give Haney a soft job like George Kambosos Jr., Regis Prograis or Jorge Linares. He wanted real quality like Jaron Ennis, Richardson Hitchins, Eimantas Stanionis or Brian Norman Jr. All those fighters would probably beat Haney in style.
Hearn told Boxingscene that Haney was not the type who would have been willing to accept $500,000 to $1 million for a tune-up. He “wanted to be paid well” for a match that typically wouldn’t rate that kind of dough.
“For the amount of money he wants for a comeback fight, it’s not easy because generally a comeback fight is not a great fight. Who’s going to pay for it? If you can find someone to pay big money for a comeback fight, it might be BLK Prime.”
This suggests Haney still considers himself a big name or champion despite coming off a loss to Ryan Garcia in a three knockdown, 12 round majority decision loss last April 20. The New York State Athletic Commission later overturned the loss due to Ryan’s positive test for the banned PED Ostarine, but fans still saw it as a loss.
Haney didn’t look that much like a champion or a top-10 fighter against Garcia, and certainly not a guy who deserves to be “paid well” for a tune-up.
It will be interesting to see who Devin fights at BLK Prime on March 25th. Will they let him fight a tomato can and pay him top dollar, or will they insist on value for money? If that’s the case, Haney will likely lose and ruin his chances for the rematch with Garcia unless he’s willing to fight him when he’s coming off a loss. I wouldn’t leave it up to Kingry to do that because he doesn’t seem interested in taking risky fights either.
“March, I’m back,” said Devin Haney on X. BLK then responded, “See you March 25th on BLK Prime.”