Devin Haney and Liam Paro will finally be in the same room. Top Rank announced on X Friday that the official kick-off press conference for Haney vs. Paro happens Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 1 p.m. PT. The promotion billed it as the first time the two will go face-to-face. The post came with a trophy emoji and a bridge emoji, which is about as much of a hint as Top Rank felt like dropping.
The fight itself is headed for December. MMA Junkie reported Thursday that Haney’s next bout had been confirmed and noted that the December boxing calendar is getting crowded. Tuesday is when the promotional machine actually turns on. It brings the first round of quotes, the first stare-down and the first chance for somebody to say something he regrets by Wednesday.
For Haney, the most famous night of his career still starts arguments. He beat Vasiliy Lomachenko by unanimous decision for the undisputed lightweight championship at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in May 2023, and plenty of people still call that result controversial. The timing here is almost comedic. On Thursday, Lomachenko announced he’s ending his 17-month retirement and signing a multi-year co-promotional deal with Top Rank through his new company, Loma Power Promotions.
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Loma’s comeback points somewhere else, though. The 38-year-old is dropping to super featherweight, the division where he once held the WBO title, and he’s chasing the one thing his resume is missing, an undisputed championship. He retired in June 2025 at 18-3 with 12 knockouts. That came more than a year after he stopped George Kambosos Jr. in the 11th round for the vacant IBF lightweight belt. The Ring reported he could return as soon as Feb. 13, 2027, against undefeated Charly Suarez, with a possible shot at unified champion O’Shaquie Foster later in the year. “I thought I would never step back into the ring again as a boxer,” Lomachenko said in a press release.
So Top Rank’s week includes a legend’s return and the launch of a December fight on Haney’s side of the ledger. Nobody has announced a Haney-Lomachenko rematch, and with Loma heading down to 130, nothing in Thursday’s announcement points toward one. Still, the guy whose signature win came against Lomachenko is about to do a press conference for the company that just re-signed Lomachenko. Somebody with a microphone is going to ask about it.
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Quick take: first face-offs are where you find out if a fight has a pulse. I’ve watched too many matchups get hyped for weeks and then die at the stare-down, with two guys nodding politely and posing for photographers like they’re at a cousin’s wedding. Haney has already lived through the noise of a disputed undisputed fight, so a podium won’t rattle him. Paro gets his first crack at him in person Tuesday at 1 p.m. PT. If Paro wants this December date to feel like more than one line on a stuffed calendar, he’d better show up with something sharper than handshakes and talk about mutual respect.
