With unified welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis moved on to the junior-middleweight division and Teofimo Lopez Jnr withdrawing from negotiations, Devin Haney and his manager-trainer father, Bill Haney, are now targeting WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jnr.
In a Tuesday conversation with BoxingScene, the elder Haney said he’s confident he can secure a deal that will pay Norman 28-0 (22 KOs) more than what he wanted to fight Ennis last year to strike a showdown between his unbeaten, two-division champion son and Norman.
“We’ve made it clear it’s Devin Haney versus everybody, and Brian Norman Jnr is on that list,” Bill Haney said. “You guys [Team Norman] said that you wanted more [to fight Ennis]. Well, guess what? We know what your ‘more’ is, and if you want that to fight Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney,’ then you can get that next.”
Georgia’s Norman, 24, is coming off a sensational Thursday showing in Japan, knocking out Jin Sasaki in the fifth round in highlight-reel fashion to bolster his profile after previously venturing to the home arena of Giovanni Santillan in San Diego to knock him out last year.
Norman intends to “enjoy the win for a few days and then get back to work,” his manager, Jolene Mizzone, told BoxingScene earlier this week.
Devin Haney posted a unanimous-decision victory over former unified 140lbs champion Jose Ramirez May 2 in New York’s Times Square in the comeback bout from his three-knockdown loss to Ryan Garcia in April 2024 that was later changed to a no-contest following Garcia’s three positive tests for the banned PED Ostarine.
Haney 32-0 (15 KOs) was subjected to criticism for an evasive showing with few punches against Ramirez, but he and his father have responded to that by pressing for big bouts that seem far more certain to entertain.
A planned August 16 welterweight bout in Saudi Arabia at 145lbs with current WBO 140lbs champion Lopez fell apart in the 11th hour as Lopez balked, and now Haney’s pursuing a young champion in Norman whose left-hook disposal of Sasaki caught the sport’s full attention.
“You had one hell of a hellacious knockout down there in Japan against a formidable and game opponent, but you guys lived off social media against ‘Boots’ Ennis, and you were looking for him … ‘Devo’ [Devin] didn’t like that energy, so now that you’ve been disappointed by ‘Boots,’ we’ve got to fight,” Bill Haney said.
“He [Norman] would be getting everything he could want and ask for. If not, then shut up and get out of our way.”
Haney declined to say who would fund the bout after earlier mentioning the interest of Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh.
“When you’ve got Devin, you’ve got the fight. It’s big. Do you want it or not?” Bill Haney said. “His daddy [trainer Brian Norman Snr] said [Norman Jnr] should’ve got $2 million and he said he speaks for his son. I said, ‘Ok, we can get the $2 million. Sign on the dotted line.’”
The elder Haney earlier Tuesday tweeted to Norman, “Same deal you wanted for ‘Boots,’ will you take for ‘The Dream?’”
Haney said his former unified lightweight champion son’s “hit list” is “like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
Now comes the hard work of pressing for a deal to become reality.