Bill Haney would not deign to hear of any comparisons between his son and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Not after the way Devin Haney performed a thorough vivisection of Regis Prograis.
After 12 rounds last Saturday night at Chase Center in San Francisco, Haney wrested the WBC 140-pound title from Prograis by shutting him out on all three scorecards to become a champion in his first attempt in the weight class. Haney, who lives in Henderson, Nevada, but was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, was previously the undisputed lightweight champion.
Afterward, an elated Bill Haney, who also acts as Devin’s head trainer, went so far as to point out that a certain Hall of Fame fighter—he goes by “Money May”—did not even deserve to be mentioned alongside his 25-year-old son.
“What Floyd didn’t do at 25, Devin did do,” Haney told iFL TV. “This is the Devin Haney era. Guess what? Floyd you can keep talking that money sh!t if you want to, yeah, there’s somebody coming for the Mount Rushmore of boxing and his name is Devin Haney.
“Yeah, two-division world champion, undisputed world champion, checking a bunch of money, man, and taking care of his team, man, about 25 [people]. And guess what? We ain’t had no problems with contracts, no disputes, no broadcasters, no none of that. This is the Devin Haney era. Don’t ever mention Floyd Mayweather to me.”
After a controversial win over Vasiliy Lomachenko in his last fight, Haney had his way with New Orlean’s Prograis, who now owns the ignominious distinction of landing the fewest total number of punches in a title fight—38—since CompuBox started its tabulations.
Haney, despite being mocked for lacking punching power, managed to drop Prograis in the third round with a straight right, in addition to buzzing Prograis multiple times throughout the fight.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.