Paulie Malignaggi lit into Devin Haney today, using him as an example of fighters today who carefully matched against weak opposition coming up and overpaid.
Malignaggi points out that Haney’s resume had been built on wins over “grandfathers,” when he stepped up against Ryan Garcia, he was beaten. He’s being brought back by Turki Al-Sheikh and used on several of his cards in the pipeline for 2025 and 2026.
“Grandfathers” & Wheelchairs
“You realized that Devin Haney was oversaturating the bag when he came back from the Ryan Garcia fight and didn’t want to take 1.75 million to fight Sandor Martin coming off a loss,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Fighthype, talking about Devin Haney being overpaid.
“When he didn’t want to fight Sandor Martin for $1.75 million with a hit to his image [against Ryan Garica], I’m like, ‘What in the F were you paying this guy [Haney]?’ His resume is filled with grandfathers, and then he didn’t even beat Lomachenko. He just got the gift.
“The reason that’s not a lot of money to Devin Haney is because you got to ask yourself, ‘What in the world were you paying that guy to fight guys in wheelchairs?’ What in the heck was that?
Haney’s Resume
– Yuriorkis Gamboa: 38
– Jorge Linares: 35
– Regis Prograis: 35
– Vasily Lomachenko: 35
– Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz: 29
Haney was built like a product, packaged with the hip-hop look with the gold chains and baggy clothes, and matched against older washed-up fighters to market to the public. He was a good basic fringe-level fighter in actual terms but matched against weak opposition to make him look better than he is.
“Is it just the Saudis oversaturating the market, or is the West manufacturing stars on purpose, choosing who they want to manufacture and then letting them become [fake] stars? Devin Haney was fighting guys in retirement homes coming up and getting paid a lot of money,” said Paulie.
It’s not just Haney that the promoters are creating as fake stars. Many of them have been built, and they’re being protected with matchmaking in what seems to be a goal of getting cash-out.
Mayweather’s Shadow
In Haney’s case, the promoters may have felt that there was potential to use him to fill Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s empty shoes after he retired. He had a Mayweather-like style, minus the hand speed and ring IQ. He looked like an imitation of Mayweather, and it worked with the fans who were desperate for a replacement. Haney slipped into his shoes and was matched against beatable opposition to create him.
Who’s Next
Edgar Berlanga
Keyshawn Davis
Teofimo Lopez
Xander Zayas
Jared Anderson
“Jorge Linares got knocked out by Pablo Cano in one round in 2017,” said Malignaggi. “Haney fought him [Linares] in 2019 in a main event. Cano knocked out Linares in one round. That’s how shot Linares was. In 2019 [correction: May 29, 2021], Haney’s main event was against Linares, selling it as Linares, the former champion, the former pound-for-pound guy. He did it with three super old guys.”
Haney didn’t even look good against the shopworn Linares, as he was staggered late in the fight and forced to clinch nonstop to escape the 12-round fight without getting knocked out in 2021. There should have been points taken off from Haney for all the holding he was doing once he got hurt.
“It was like taking Muhammad Ali with Parkinson’s and putting him in the ring [to use as Haney’s opponent to build him into a fake star]. JoJo [Diaz], but he wasn’t on the level of Linares and Gamboa in their primes. It’s clear he [Haney] was robbing to bag. To me, he didn’t win the Lomachenko fight,” said Malignaggi.
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