Devin Haney is done waiting on Shakur Stevenson. Boxing News reported Monday that Haney has officially moved on from a showdown with Stevenson and that his next fight is set. The opponent and date weren’t among the details available at publication, so treat any names circulating online as speculation until there’s an announcement.
The timing explains a lot. Stevenson, the 25-0 WBO junior welterweight champion, signed with Zuffa Boxing in July, and MMA Fighting noted that rumors of a Haney fight started almost immediately. That fight never came together. Neither did any other. Stevenson posted on social media last Monday that he had asked out of the deal after camps that went nowhere.
“I’ve been in camp for like eight weeks for fights that I was told would happen that have not happened,” Stevenson wrote. He added that “over the weekend my request was granted, and I’m officially a free agent.” He also made a point of saying he wasn’t angry with anyone and wasn’t pointing fingers.
Dana White told a slightly different version at the UFC 333 post-fight press conference on Saturday, saying the release was his idea. “I offered him his release,” White said. “I have nothing bad to say about him or his team, but I offered him the release, and they accepted.” He also put the whole relationship in perspective: “We never even did one fight with the guy. We were in business with him for a couple of months.”
So the biggest boxing signing Zuffa ever made walked out without throwing a punch for the promotion, and the one opponent everybody wanted to see him in with has now booked something else.
That leaves Stevenson shopping for opponents at 140 as a free agent. One name that had been attached to him is already drifting away. Bloody Elbow reported that Manny Pacquiao was originally linked to a fight with Stevenson before other contenders entered the picture. The 47-year-old Pacquiao is lined up to return December 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on the Fury vs. Joshua card streaming on Netflix, and Joe Cordina is viewed as the leading option there. Paddy Donovan, the Irish former IBF welterweight title challenger, said on Total Boxing with Tris Dixon that his manager, Keith Sullivan, has reached out to Pacquiao’s team, though Donovan himself called it “a long shot.”
My take: Haney made the sensible call. You can’t keep a career on hold for a fight whose promoter couldn’t get it signed in three months, and nobody should blame a fighter for wanting a date on the calendar. The real cost lands on Stevenson, one of the best boxers alive, who spent his summer and fall running camps for nights that never existed. He’s free now, which sounds better than it is in late October. The only big date with a public deadline is December 11 in Cardiff, and his name already sits behind Cordina and Donovan on that list.
