Brian Norman Sr. let loose on Devin Haney today for all the clinching he did in his fight against his son, WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr., last Saturday night. He said Haney (33-0, 15 KOs) was “Afraid to punch the whole time.”
Haney defeated Norman Jr. (28-1, 22 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision last weekend in a dull-to-watch fight on November 22nd at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was viewed going in as the best fight on the stacked card, but it turned out to be the worst.
Norman Sr. Sets Fire To Haney’s Performance
Much of that was due to the holding from Devin, but a big part was because Norman Jr. hesitated too much when he got into throwing position. This enabled Haney to grab and hold, preventing him from getting his shots off.
“Devin will get a lot of hate behind that, but he’ll get credit for taking the toughest fight,” said Brian Norman Sr. to MillCity Boxing, responding to a caller saying that points should have been deducted from Devin Haney for all the clinching he did against WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. last Saturday night.
Clinch-Mania: The Fight Everyone Hated
Haney’s performance has been criticized as much as his previous one against Jose Ramirez on Turki Alalshikh’s card on May 2nd, 2025, in Queens, New York. In that fight, Devin ran for 12 rounds. In this one, he changed things up, choosing to hold for 12 rounds. It was too extreme, and both were boring beyond words.
“He’s going to get credit for beating the toughest fighter in the division. The haters are still going to talk s*** about the holding and the clinching and the not wanting to fight situation,” said Norman Sr. about Haney. “With the knockdown, that’s going to help him, too, because they’re going to say he’s bigger and stronger at 147.”
The fans who like Haney were willing to ignore his excessive holding and concentrated on him just winning. Fans who were neutral or disliked him hated what they saw because it was a boring fight, thanks to Haney’s holding.
Haney’s Image Takes Another Big Hit
There were too many fans who were turned off by the holding for Devin to get a free pass. They’d paid $59.99 to watch the event on DAZN PPV, and they were not happy with the value they got from the Haney-Norman Jr. fight or the mismatch in the main event between David Benavidez and Anthony Yarde.
“The other ones [that don’t like Haney], you gave them a reason [to criticize] because of all that holding and clinching and not like a straight-up fight. You got have boxed and turned, and made that look like Regis [Prograis fight]. But it didn’t look like Regis,” said Norman Sr. about Haney’s excessive clinching.
