Andre Dirrell questions whether Devin Haney has PTSD to fight WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. this Saturday, November 22, at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He wants Devin (32-0, 16 KOs) to come clean and admit that he has a problem, and tell the fans that he fixed what was wrong with him.
Is Haney mentally shaken?
Can Haney fix something mentally broken in just six months since his last fight against Jose Ramirez on May 2, 2025? If it is chronic PTSD it causes the problem, it is a problem that can last for years or even a lifetime.
“Devin Haney, does he have PTSD. Is he gunshy? If you fight like you fought Kambosos, if you don’t fight like you fought Linares, if you don’t fight like you fought Regis (Prograis), then, brother, something’s up. We can’t get the same performance (against Norman Jr.),” Andre Dirrell said Fighting game analysis on Devin Haney’s state of mind heading into this Saturday’s match against Brian Norman Jr.
The Ramirez Red Flag
Haney certainly looked timid and scared at times in his last fight against Jose Ramirez on May 2, 2025. It was Devin’s first fight back after suffering a loss to Ryan Garcia in 2024, and he didn’t seem able to compete. We saw a lot of movement and dived in at waist level to keep off Haney.
Does he have PTSD? This would indicate that his fighting style has changed. As far as I can tell, it’s the same Haney as always. The main difference is that his last fight against Ramirez had more eyes watching him, as it was on Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh season card.
Pre-Garcia vs Post-Garcia
“I’d rather see the pre-Garcia Devin Haney than the post-Garcia Devin Haney. Post-Garcia Devin Haney is a totally different Devin Haney. He’s dealing with an uncertainty there, and you can’t tell me otherwise,” Dirrell says. “To just simply not bring it up and act like everything was cool, and act like you’d do the same thing with (Jose) Ramirez. That tells me there’s an insecurity there.”
Even if there was a brave Haney that existed before Ryan Garcia, which there wasn’t, he couldn’t return to that form against Norman Jr. He would be wiped out in five rounds if he faced his man next Saturday. That would be as fast as Norman Jr’s fifth round knockout of Jin Sasaki on June 19, 2025, or probably faster.
Some of the shots that Brian Jr. Sasaki’s knockdown in the first four rounds will be devastating to Haney as it was vicious punches thrown with better power than Ryan’s shots that had Devin in serious trouble in their fight on April 20, 2024.
Turki’s “No Tom & Jerry” line
“Turki let the world know how disappointed he was in your performance,” Dirrell said of Haney’s performance against Jose Ramirez last May.
After Haney ran around the ring for 12 rounds and beat Ramirez in front of a completely silent crowd at New York’s Times Square, Turki Alalshikh came out with his now famous ‘no Tom and Jerry’ mandate for his Riyadh season cards.
The only one who has put on a Jerry-like performance on Turki’s cards since then is Terence Crawford in his win over Canelo Alvarez. He was a special case because he is one of Turki’s favorite fighters.
A walking guillotine on Saturday
If this is something Devin can actually change, he is a doomed man On the way to the running guillotine on Saturday. Norman Jr. going to chop off his head if he stands up to his man because he doesn’t have the chin.
Dirrell sounds like he hasn’t watched Haney’s previous fights. If he had, he would have known that he has always been a puller from day one in his career. Before he fought Ryan Garcia and was drilled, he moved as much in fights against Regis Prograis, Vasily Lomachenko and Alfredo Santiago as he did against Ramirez.
Last updated on 16/11/2025
