If Devin Haney is to realign with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, he apparently wants to move up for a dangerous fight right away.
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed Tuesday during an appearance on “The DAZN Boxing Show” that Haney has informed him that he wants to challenge Regis Prograis next. The undefeated, undisputed lightweight champion – fresh off his ceaselessly debated decision win over Vasiliy Lomachenko on May 20 – is a promotional free agent because his three-fight contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. and DiBella Entertainment expired after the Lomachenko clash.
Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing recently signed Prograis to a three-fight promotional agreement. If the heavily favored Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) beats Puerto Rico’s Danielito Zorrilla (17-1, 13 KOs) on June 17 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Hearn intends to begin negotiations for a Haney-Prograis fight for Prograis’ WBC super lightweight title.
“[Haney] called me the other night,” Hearn told co-hosts Barak Bess and Akin Reyes. “We had a great conversation. He wants to fight Regis Prograis. You know, it’s a tremendous fight. He wants to move up to 140. He wants a belt. And, you know, I said to him, ‘You’ve gotta be a little bit careful,’ because part of his value right now is that he’s undisputed. So, when he moves up a division, that’s the risk that he’s taking from there.
“But he has identified Regis Prograis as the fight that he wants. I think it’s an unbelievable fight. Regis loves the fight. Obviously he’s got Zorrilla first on June 17th. He’s gotta come, he’s gotta smash him to pieces and he’s gotta [call] out Devin Haney. We’ve gotta get them guys together. We’ve gotta get the right number for both guys and I believe we can make that happen.”
Matchroom promoted each of Haney’s previous six bouts before he signed a three-fight deal with Top Rank and DiBella Entertainment in March 2022. DAZN streamed all of those six fights as well.
Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) has long acknowledged that he struggles terribly to make the lightweight limit of 135 pounds. The 24-year-old Oakland, California native admitted after he defeated Lomachenko that his most noteworthy win to date might mark the end of his reign as IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO lightweight champion.
The 34-year-old Prograis has fought at or near the junior welterweight maximum of 140 pounds throughout his 11-year professional career. The strong southpaw from New Orleans has lost only a 12-round majority decision to former undisputed 140-pound champion Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) and is one of the hardest punchers in his division.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.