Devin Haney responded on social media to Artur Beterbiev rating him #5 on his personal list of pound-for-pound fighters, saying that he would be “#1 P4P.” Not surprisingly, fans are grilling Haney about his #1 pound-for-pound prediction.
To become #1 P4P, Haney will need to beat some top level fighters in whatever division he plans to fight in when he finally returns to the ring. Some fans question whether Haney is only interested in a pay-per-view match against Ryan and will then retire after being beaten by him again.
Assuming Haney moves up to 147, he’ll have to beat these welterweights for him to become #1 P4P:
- Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
- Brian Norman Jr.
- Mario Barrios
- Eimantas Stanionis
Beating all four of those fighters would potentially lead to Haney landing a top spot in the pound-for-pound rankings. He may still have to beat out someone else to get the #1 pound-for-pound position, as only Boots Ennis is highly rated out of that group. Haney has the size to fight at 154.
So he could move up to that weight class and pick Terence Crawford, Sebastian Fundora or Tim Tszyu to get the #1 pound-for-pound position. Beating Boots and then one or two of these guys might do the trick for Haney.
Many fans consider the former two-division world champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) a tumor after his 12-round majority decision loss to Ryan Garcia earlier this year on April 20th. Haney was dropped three times in that fight and looked overmatched. He hasn’t fought since that loss and is now suing Ryan for various things.
They point out that undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev mentioned last week that he doesn’t watch boxing.
For Haney to bounce back from that loss could be difficult, as his opponents will follow the Ryan blueprint by targeting him with short left hooks to the head. Haney couldn’t stop that shot all night and was repeatedly hurt.
But these twitter trolls know more than Beterbiev, right? I will be #1 P4P InshaAllah https://t.co/7DKHzfQzLW
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) 14 October 2024
“Devin needs to find his confidence again. So, I don’t think it would behoove him to go right back to a rematch, especially with Ryan Garcia,” said Chris Algieri. Probox TV about Devin Haney needing to regain his confidence before fighting Ryan Garcia again.
“I think he needs to find his legs again, find his combinations and his timing. All that is going to be important as a boxer.”
“I’ve given Haney a hard time, but I still think it’s soft that he’s suing, and he’s suing for a lot of different things. A lot of different things, and he’s hoping that one of these things will stick,” Tim Bradley said.
