IBF light welterweight champion Liam Paro says Devin Haney asked for “silly money” and “wasn’t serious” in their failed attempts to negotiate a fight recently. The unbeaten Paro (25-0, 15 KOs) says he gave up on trying to put a fight together because of Haney’s money expectations.
Haney’s popularity has plummeted since his loss to Ryan Garcia last April, and he’s not in the position to command the big paydays that he would have if he’d won that fight.
For Haney to still be asking for “silly money” suggests his loss to Ryan hasn’t registered with him because he’s still going operating on the nothing that he’s an unbeaten fighter. We see that a lot with fighters. When they get beaten, they still believe that they rate the same purses as before. It takes some mental catch-up on their part to understand things are different for them.
The New York State Athletic Commission has cleansed Haney’s loss from his record, but the fans still view him as having been beaten.
So he can’t act like he’s still in the same place as before, commanding the same money because things are different now. He’s a beaten fighter and he’s viewed by many fans as being washed. To get back to where he was previously, he needs to rebuild his career by defeating the A-level fighters at 140 or 147. As big as Haney is, he should move up to 154 and take on one of the champions in that weight class.
Paro will instead be defending his IBF 140-lb title against #1-ranked Richardson Hitchins (18-0, 7 KOs) on December 7th at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The event will be shown live on DAZN.
It’s doubtful whether Haney, 25, could have made the IBF’s 10-lb rehydration limit for a fight against Paro. That would require Haney to delay fully rehydrating until after the morning weigh-in on the day of the fight against Paro. Could Haney keep his weight no higher than 150 lbs until the morning of the fight?
“I wanted that fight for a long time. He out-priced himself, asking for silly money. He doesn’t bring a belt to the table, so we just moved on. We could tell he wasn’t serious,” said Liam Paro to Fighthype about his attempts to put together a fight against Devin Haney.
Paro doesn’t say what kind of money Haney asked for to challenge him for his IBF belt, but it’s no longer important now. He missed his chance.
Haney needs to start pushing for a rematch against Ryan Garcia because that’s his best chance to get a big payday and return to the top. If Haney can’t get that fight due to his lawsuit, he needs to move up to 147 and face challenge one of the champions in the division.
Fighting Mario Barrios or Eimantas Stanionis would give Haney the opportunity to capture a belt at welterweight to help get other important fights. Those are very beatable champions, but they still have a little bit of pop in their punches. If Haney’s punch resistance has been impaired from his loss to Ryan, he’ll have problems against those champions.
