“I Don’t Know What I’d Do With Him”: Hearn Slams the Door on Haney

Promoter says deals depend on numbers as talks stall without Saudi-backed budgets

Eddie Hearn says Devin Haney’s asking price is making fights difficult to finalize. He added that any deal depends on the numbers making sense.

Hearn was asked about Haney and made it clear money is the stumbling block.

“I love Devin. We’ve talked, and if a fight made sense or a number made sense, but he wants crazy money,” Hearn said to iFL TV.

In the current climate, that’s a nearly impossible hill to climb for a Haney-led card without the Riyadh Season safety net.

Haney earned premium money while fighting on cards financed by Turki Alalshikh, where purses were often inflated beyond normal commercial levels. Those events changed the scale for many fighters, but not every promoter can operate with that kind of budget. $10 million for the Jose Ramirez, and $12 million for Brian Norman Jr.

The math just doesn’t add up for a traditional promoter once you look at those numbers. If Haney is pocketing $10m to $12m per outing, a promoter like Eddie Hearn would need to generate roughly $20 million to $25 million in total revenue just to cover the purses, undercard, venue, and marketing before even seeing a penny of profit.

Stepping up to 147 and getting $12 million is incredible business for Haney, but it sets a dangerous precedent. If he expects that same check to fight a name like Rolly Romero or even a unification bout with someone like Lewis Crocker, the normal market is going to balk.

Hearn is basically playing the bad cop here by being honest about the economics. He isn’t necessarily blaming Turki Alalshikh for the spoiling, but he is acknowledging the side effect.

By saying he “doesn’t know what he would do” with Haney, Hearn is making a clear distinction: Haney is a distressed asset because his price tag has outpaced his commercial drawing power.

It’s even harder to justify those checks when the fans are complaining. Back-to-back decisions that failed to ignite the crowd make it difficult for a promoter to sell a premium product to a network or PPV audience. If the “Dream” doesn’t provide the highlights, the “crazy money” starts to look like a bad investment.

Without a Saudi-style bankroll, Haney might find himself in a golden cage: too expensive for the regulars, but not explosive enough to demand the mega-purses forever.

Once those outside funds are removed, reality can look different. Haney was linked to a fight with Rolly Romero, yet the bout never came together after momentum slowed, and no Saudi-style bankroll was attached.

“You need someone that’s desperate to pay to overpay the marketplace. Bit like I did with him years ago,” said Hearn.

That quote suggests Hearn believes he already made the expensive mistake once and has no reason to repeat it now.

“If I signed Devin, I just don’t know what I would do with him.”

Haney remains a skilled fighter with name value inside boxing, but Hearn’s message was clear: If purse demands are built on Saudi-era numbers, many fights become hard to make once the subsidy disappears.

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