Walk Away or Fight On? Devin Haney Confronts His Moment of Truth

The harshness of boxing has come upon Devin Haney this week in a way that has reached few others.

After suffering his first loss by majority decision to an opponent who was overweight, nabbed for performance-enhancing drug use and has taken to gloating over it nearly every day since on social media, Haney absorbed one more insult when his expected next-fight earnings were revealed.

Instead of the reported eight-figure windfall he is to ultimately collect for his three-knockdown loss to Ryan Garcia on April 20, Haney this week was distraught to learn the one and only bid on his WBC mandatory 140-pound title defense against Spain’s Sandor Martin will pay him just over $1.6 million.

Haney (31-1, 15 KOs) posted on X to suggest he would take two years off to wait for a Garcia rematch. He criticized his occasional promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing for not even bidding. And he indicated he may vacate his belt and pursue another course.

The toll of a singular loss in boxing was revealed in full.

“You get out of being sad by going out and whooping some ass,” ProBox TV boxing analyst and former 140-pound world titleholder Chris Algieri said on Wednesday’s episode of “Deep Waters.” “You’ve got to understand: ‘I can get back to this again.’”

At 25, Haney has plenty of time to wash away the mess that occurred that night of the Garcia loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Part of that healing, one might argue, was rendered Thursday when the New York State Athletic Commission suspended and fined Garcia, and overturned his victory to a no-contest.

That aside, Haney is mourning the loss of his surging career momentum, as he entered the Garcia fight as a former undisputed lightweight champion who had collected a belt at 140 pounds and seemed poised for another run toward undisputed in a stacked division.

After getting repeatedly rocked and dropped by power punches he said he had never felt before, Haney is left to mull whether he should keep his prized belt or turn that over, too, to the problematic Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a skilled southpaw who sent four-division champion Mikey Garcia to retirement and nearly upset WBO 140-pound champion Teofimo Lopez.

“You’ve got to take a step back sometimes and take a smaller purse because you’re going to make tons of money again if you win,” Algieri said. “But you’ve got to win this fight …”

And that’s the nut.

“Sandor Martin is a banana peel,” Algieri said. “He is a tough guy to beat. It’s really hard to look good against him. He upsets the apple cart [retiring] Mikey Garcia and then he goes out against Teofimo Lopez and dropped him, and many thought he beat him. To come back [from Garcia] against someone so tough for $1.5 million when you’re used to making 10 times that amount, I understand.

“We fight for money. We put our lives on the line. We work for generational money and give our blood, sweat, tears and brain cells for this.”

Algieri, however, said he would still advise Haney to keep the title defense at the lower purse unless he’s truly saying, “Let me rest, let me recover, let my brain rest, this is right for my career.”

Backing out for low pay is a bad look, and where’s the guarantee he’ll get more elsewhere?

“It’s always about what you’ve done lately. There are very short memories in this sport,” Algieri said. 

Conversely, he said, “guys get over being knocked out. It takes a little out of you. All of our [ProBox] contributors have been knocked down. They fought on after that, and some became Hall of Famers. We fight. Swimmers get wet. Gunslingers get shot. You have to keep fighting, keep moving, get better from that and learn from your losses.

“Is [Haney] damaged goods? No. He’s only damaged goods if he wants to be. The damage is here,” Algieri said, pointing to his head, “in his mentality and emotional state. If he can get over that, he will be a multiple-time world champion, probably in a bunch of weight classes.

“He can still be the guy he wants to be. Learn how to win after losing. That’s all about being a world-championship boxer.”