Following a one-sided win over Regis Prograis, Devin Haney got into various topics at his post-fight press conference, including potentially moving up to 147 lbs next, after just one fight at 140, albeit a dominant, title-winning fight.
Haney (31-0, 15 KO) stressed repeatedly — and pretty honestly — that he’s looking to make the biggest and best fights for the most money he can get.
With that, one name that came up was Gervonta “Tank” Davis, but Team Haney don’t see that as likely.
“Tank don’t want to fight,” Devin said. “If he really wanted to fight, he would be trying to build up the fight instead of trying to knock it down, or say I’m only selling because of this or that.
“If he really wanted to fight me, he would be saying it’s a big fight and the best fight for boxing. He only talks down on the fight. But like I’ve said many times, they say everything, but let’s fight.”
Father and trainer Bill Haney got a few words in, too, urging fans to stop believing “lies” from Davis and his team.
“Nobody has out-did Devin, in terms of Tank’s dance partners. You don’t have to down the other fighter to validate what you are and what you bring to the table,” Bill added.
“Tank and his team have consistently lied to the people. … So a message to all the fans: Stop letting Tank and his team piss on your head and tell you it’s rain with these insignificant fights and saying it’s ‘for the culture.’ Devin represents the culture and represents boxing and what boxing should be and what boxing is.”
More from Haney at the press conference:
On what comes next
“I don’t know. I want to talk to my dad and see what’s next. I want to do a fight at 147, but there’s a lot of big fights at 140. I’m into making the biggest, best fights in the sport of boxing. That’s where I’m at. I became undisputed at 135, I made history, I’m in the history books forever. Now I want to make the biggest fights happen, for the most money, to be honest.”
On who he could fight at 147
“I don’t know. I want to talk to my dad, he’s been looking at the 147 lb landscape. You would have to ask him.”
Bill Haney: “When looking at legacy, and so many people right now tarnish the sport of boxing by saying belts don’t matter, we look to continue Devin being a legacy fighter. He went from 135 and challenged a 140 lb WBC champion, and he has the ability to go up [to 147] and be a three-division champion and undisputed at 25. I think that’s a Hall of Fame statement. That’s one of the options. He’s something special, man. I can’t say enough about him.”
On Prograis breaking De Los Santos’ futility record
“That’s a good record to set [as his opponent]. That was part of the game plan, to go in there and handicap him of his best things, and his best thing was his left hand. That’s his bread and butter, and we took it off the table. I don’t even think he landed that many punches. What was it, 38? I don’t remember him landing that many.”
“I knew I was levels above him. These guys, I’m levels above them, but I was killing myself to make 135. I would go into the fight and I would be depleted, I wouldn’t be my best self. Now I’m able to go in there and be the real Devin Haney.”
On speaking with Prograis post-fight
“He told me that I was super fast and super sharp, and that was it. But I want to talk to Regis. I told him thank you for the opportunity and giving me a shot at the title.”
On Ryan Garcia
“That’s a possibility, that’s a mega-fight. I’ve been calling out Ryan for years now, and it’s good to hear that he finally wants to fight. It sucks that it came after he took an L, but it was only a matter of time. But now he finally wants to call me out, and at the end of the day it’s still a big fight, and like I said, I want to make the best fights, biggest fights happen.”
“What’s crazy is I seen Ryan right before I went into training camp, he didn’t say nothing about fighting me, so — I literally was shopping, we ran into each other at a store, he didn’t say nothing about fighting.”
On sticking to his plan
“I wanted to fight [hard], I knew I could hurt him and was hurting him, but every round I went back to the corner, my dad would say, ‘Just keep focused, keep sticking to the game plan, you’re beating him easy, keep breaking him down,’ and that’s what I was doing. It comes with experience. In the Linares fight, I was breaking him down, he was going down fast, but I got too greedy and that’s when I got hit with the shot I shouldn’t have got hit with. In this fight, with the experience, we stuck to the game plan. If the knockout was going to come, it would come, but we didn’t want to get too greedy.”
On showing more power
“Like I said, at 135 I was depleting myself so much, and I couldn’t understand why I was hurting guys in the gym every sparring session, but I get into a fight and my power wouldn’t be there. It was because I was depleting myself so much, killing myself to make the weight, that I was leaving it all in the gym. This fight, I showed — I wasn’t even trying to punch hard, and I was hurting him. I knocked him down and stuff like that.”
On the statement this fight made
“I just showed I’ve got it all. I’ve got the power, speed, everything. It just depends on what I want to do. … I’m a complete fighter. But [critics] are always going to say something. First they said I couldn’t sell, I just sold out [16,000]. They said I had no power, I went in there and dropped him early, hurt him multiple times. What are they gonna say now?”
On Teofimo Lopez
“I want to make the biggest, best fights happen. If we can make the fight happen, and it makes sense, then we can make the fight happen. Like I said, the biggest fights for the most money.”
On how long until he’ll be No. 1 P4P
“I don’t know, I put it in Allah’s hands. I’m not rushing nothing, I’m still young, 25 years old. It’s only a matter of time until I’ll be No. 1 on that pound-for-pound list, but I’m climbing the ladder. … I feel like at this point, I should be Fighter of the Year. But also, not only that, they don’t want to give my dad credit, but I think he deserves Trainer of the Year. When they mention the best trainers in boxing, I don’t understand because they never mention my dad. But he is the best trainer in boxing and it showed.”
On Oscar De La Hoya
“A funny thing, too, a funny story — I got a message from Oscar yesterday, and I was surprised. He wished me luck. He said good luck, do your thing. And I scrolled up and looked at the [last] message [from] before, and I’d told him to ‘fuck off.’ [laughing] So it was funny, but I told him thank you, him being a legend and wishing me luck in this fight.”
On when he will return
“I want to take some time off, spend some time with the family. I had a hard training camp, I’ve been in training camp for 10 weeks, and I’ve been very disciplined and focused. I want to take some time off and just rest and relax, let my body recover.”