Devin Haney is preparing to headline a stacked Ring Magazine card against Brian Norman Jr. in a bid for Norman’s WBO welterweight title.
Devin Haney‘s career has seen some ups and downs lately. In 2023, Haney was on top of the world as he moved up to super-lightweight off the back of a win over Vasyl Lomachenko and defeated Regis Prograis with ease, winning every single round.
In his next fight, though, things came crashing down for Haney as he suffered his first ever loss to Ryan Garcia, who was later found to have had PEDs in his system, prompting the fight to be overturned into a no-contest.
Even in his latest bout, Haney won, but was heavily criticized for his performance, with fans accusing him of being ‘shellshocked’ as a result of the Garcia loss.
As he prepares to face a severely dangerous knockout artist, Haney hopes to put those rumors to bed for good.
Devin Haney insists he wouldn’t face Brian Norman Jr if he were ‘shellshocked’
In an appearance on Ring Champs with Ak and Barak, Haney was given the chance to speak against the comments on his recent performance,
“If I’m so shellshocked, then why am I fighting a guy like Brian Norman? […] He’s the biggest puncher at 147, right? Why would I go fight him?”
Norman Jr. is now 28-0 after his latest win ended in a KO victory for Norman over Japanese fighter Jin Sasaki.
Sasaki revealed after the loss that he had been hit so hard he had forgotten the fight even being made let alone him entering the ring and fighting.
Haney went on to admit he doesn’t know any of Norman’s previous opponents, so is unsure just how good he is,
“It’s hard for me to really rate him because I don’t know any of the guys he beat. […] You put Teofimo in there with the same guys, Teo’s gonna do the same thing, you put anybody in there with the same guys they’re gonna do the same thing.”
Haney vs Norman Jr. will take place on November 22nd. Artur Beterbiev and David Benavidez are also on the card, and could fight if they both win.
Devin Haney almost made a fight with Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
Later in the podcast, Haney revealed that he almost had a fight with Jaron Ennis.
“They asked us, they said ‘Are you open to doing a Boots fight?’ I said ‘100%, at 147.'”
‘The Dream’ then went on to suggest Ennis’ team wanted the fight at 152, almost 10 pounds more than Haney’s heaviest weight at 143.
“They wanted to do it at 152, I haven’t even fought at 147 yet. I said, ‘No, if you come down to 147, we can do the fight.'”
Ennis has now moved on from the welterweight division and will face Uisma Lima next.