Bill Haney is obviously biased, but he believes his son cemented himself Saturday night as the best boxer, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
Devin Haney was so dominant in defeating a two-time 140-pound champion who had lost only a majority decision to an eventual undisputed champ in that division that the elder Haney had every reason to state his son’s case. His 12-round domination of Regis Prograis at Chase Center was the most impressive performance of the newly crowned WBC super lightweight champion’s career.
The Oakland native’s unquestioned shutout of the strong southpaw was also his second legacy-enhancing victory in the past 6½ months. Haney’s unanimous-decision defeat of Ukraine’s Vasiliy Lomachenko in his last fight seemed debatable, but he beat the three-division champion on the cards of judges Tim Cheatham (115-113), Dave Moretti (116-112) and David Sutherland (115-113).
In his past four fights, Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) has soundly defeated former IBF/WBA/WBO lightweight champ George Kambosos (21-2, 10 KOs) to become boxing’s first fully unified lightweight champion of the four-belt era, beat Kambosos convincingly again in their immediate 12-round rematch, edged Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) and completely outclassed Prograis (29-2, 24 KOs).
“No other fighter has done what Devin has done,” Bill Haney said during the post-fight press conference. “Crossing the pond to become undisputed [against Kambosos in Australia]. Coming up to another division and fighting the hard-hitting, arguably no one, you know, the boogeyman no one wanted to fight. He’s the number one fighter right now, pound-for-pound. And it’s no slight towards Terence Crawford’s performance. But if Errol Spence was depleted and he has go up to ’54, how much f—— credit can we give him for that fight?”
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), a three-division champion from Omaha, Nebraska, became boxing’s first undisputed welterweight champ of the four-belt era when he dropped Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) three times and stopped the former IBF/WBA/WBC champ in the ninth round of their highly anticipated title unification fight July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The 36-year-old Crawford was widely lauded for his superb performance against Spence in what was supposed to be a much more competitive fight.
Bill Haney shrewdly alluded to Spence’s struggles to squeeze down to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds when declaring Devin Haney as the sport’s new pound-for-pound king. Crawford is contractually obligated to an immediate rematch with Spence, which could be contested at the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds to accommodate Spence.
BoxingScene.com, ESPN.com and The Ring magazine all have Crawford ranked number one on the most recent pound-for-pound lists for those outlets. Haney occupies the seventh spot on each of those lists, but he will likely move up based on the ease with which he handled Prograis.
“I don’t know,” Devin Haney said when asked about his pound-for-pound status. “You know, I put it in Allah’s hands. You know, I’m not rushing nothing. I’m still young, 25 years old. It’s only a matter of time. … I’ll be number one on that pound-for-pound list. But, you know, I’m climbing the ladder.”
Prior to Saturday night, New Orleans’ Prograis had lost only a 12-round majority decision to Josh Taylor in their title unification fight in October 2019 at O2 Arena in London. Scotland’s Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs), who became their division’s fully unified champion when he beat Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision in May 2021, was undefeated when he beat Prograis.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.