Devin Haney is expected to use his boxing skills to neutralize WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr’s power to a decisive victory in their bout on Saturday night. on DAZN PPV.
(Credit: Queensberry/Leigh Dawney)
Haney’s survival blueprint
Haney (32-0, 16 KOs) must face the attack of the undefeated Norman Jr. (28-0, 22 KOs) stops to avoid ending up in the same position as his last opponent, Jin Sasaki, by being knocked down.
We already know how the battle will play out. Devin will touch and move all night, making it ugly. He wants the win and doesn’t care if it isn’t entertaining. Turki Alalshikh is unlikely to allow Haney to return in a rematch with Ryan Garcia as he is coming off a knockout loss to Norman Jr.
It would make a mockery of a second fight, sending the message that it’s not about merit. It’s a popularity contest.
“The thing about power is it is not enough when it comes to elite boxers. Devin Haney is an elite boxer with one of the best jabs in boxing. It’s the chin that’s really questionable on Devin Haney,” commentator Sergio Mora said DAZN Boxing on whether Brian Norman Jr’s power will be enough to lead him to a victory over Devin Haney on Saturday.
The Chin Question
The chin is what really counts in this fight on Saturday. It doesn’t matter how good of a boxer Haney is. If he can’t take Norman Jr’s power, he’s not going to make it to 12th.
This is not a fight in which Haney will have a six-to-eight-inch reach advantage over Norman Jr., which would allow him to fight outside all night without getting touched. Norman Jr. has the longer reach, and he’s not going to be afraid to walk through Haney’s punches to get his power shots.
Mora goes overboard by classifying Haney as an “elite boxer.” The fighters he beat at 135 were smaller than him. He was essentially a welterweight fighting at lightweight. Haney’s ability to drain well below his natural size gave him a tremendous advantage.
Devin has only fought one good fighter at 135, Vasily Lomachenko, and his win was controversial. He was 35 at the end of his career and fought two divisions above his best weight class of 126.
We can call Haney an “elite boxer” if he stays at lightweight and beats Andy Cruz, Adbullah Mason, Floyd Schofield or Gervonta Davis.
“Which Devin Haney are we going to get? Are we going to get the master boxer that we saw, the vulnerable chin that we saw against Ryan Garcia, or the sneaky Devin Haney that we saw in his last fight against Jose Ramirez? Those are the questions that are going to be answered,” Mora said.
Expect an ugly fight
One has to assume that we will get the same on Saturday night.sly” version of Haney we saw in his last fight against Jose Ramirez in the stacked ‘Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ event at Times Square in New York on May 2, 2025.
Devin looked scared of Ramirez at all times, running the entire 12 rounds and not stopping long enough to throw more than one punch at a time. If Haney was afraid to trade with the 33-year-old Ramirez, he will likely be the same against Brian Norman Jr., who is a big puncher with both hands.
