Devin Haney may need to make a defense of his newly won WBC light welterweight title against his mandatory challenger Sandor Martin, who he inherited after dethroning champion Regis Prograis last month on December 9th.
Eddie Hearn acknowledged that Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) may need to address his mandatory commitments to defend against Sandor (42-3, 15 KOs), who he seems less than excited about as an opponent for Devin.
Hearn said that Haney could defend against Martin or move up to welterweight for a bigger fight. He didn’t say who Devin would face at 147, but it’s believed he wants Mario Barrios, the WBA interim welterweight champion, so that Haney can be elevated or fight for the full belt if it’s vacant.
The fight that Hearn wanted for Haney was Ryan Garcia, but he chose to go in the direction of a clash against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero instead.
Hearn seemed pretty upset about it, like he’d been counting on Ryan taking the fight, but realistically, it had very little chance of happening even if he didn’t pull out of talks.
“It’s very easy to spin a narrative on why you don’t want to fight someone, and I think that’s what Ryan has done. ‘I’m not fighting Devin,’ and they want the lion’s share of that. I know that,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing about Ryan Garcia turning down a fight against Devin Haney, saying he only brought in 35K PPV buys for his December 9th fight against WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis.
“Listen, Ryan is a huge draw; he’s coming off a massive PPV against Gervonta Davis. These guys, they need each other. So, I’m disappointed that we couldn’t give the fans that brilliant fight,” Hearn said about the Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia clash that he wanted to put together.
“Yeah, there’s a mandatory that’s due [for Haney’s newly won WBC light welterweight title against Sandor Martin]. It’s not the flavor of the month, that fight, with no disrespect to Sandor. At some point, he [Devin] might have to deal with it, and maybe there’s a move to 147,” said Hearn.
