Former two-division world champion Devin Haney hints at returning to the ring soon to resume his successful career.
Riyadh Bound
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) posted on social media that the sport wasn’t the same during his four-month absence. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh responded with a favorable message on X, saying, “Deliver the job, champ. Waiting for you in Riyadh.”
If Haney does take Turki up on his offer to fight in Riyadh, he can easily slide into one of the spots on the upcoming October 12th Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol card at the Kingdom Arena.
That would only give Haney, 25, two months to prepare for the event, but that should be more than enough for a young fighter his age, especially if he’s a warm-up fight at 147 against a fringe contender or a second-tier fighter who isn’t a threat to beating him.
Adapting to Survive
It’ll be interesting to see Haney return to the ring to see if he can resume his successful career at a new weight class at 147. What’s obvious is the need for Haney to change his fighting style if he’s going to campaign at welterweight.
As we saw in Haney’s fighters against Ryan Garcia and Jorge Linares, he doesn’t possess the punch resistance or the chin to stand in the pocket and slug with his opponents. Moreover, he’s got to stop holding as much as he’s been doing because it puts him in the line of fire against fighters who throw short punches.
We saw Ryan Garcia hurt Haney often when he tried to clinch nonstop against him as he’d done against many of his previous opponents.
Haney has had four months to recover from the beating he took against Ryan Garcia on April 20th, and hopefully, that’s enough time for him to come back for a fight in October.
Ryan hurt Haney numerous times in the fight and essentially knocked him out in round seven when he was dropped four times.
The referee bailed Devin out by only counting one of the knockdowns and calling a timeout to penalize Ryan without warning for hitting on the break.
The game ain’t been the same.. bout time I come back
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) August 14, 2024
👀🤲🏽 https://t.co/hj9qXkUmsN
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) August 14, 2024
I would say the come back.. but I never left.. see you soon brother 🤲🏽🔜 https://t.co/ugIfkiEdwA
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) August 14, 2024
#RiyadhSeason ✨@Realdevinhaney ➕ @Turki_alalshikh pic.twitter.com/EIlZ5o3CPv
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) August 14, 2024
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