Devin Haney and Liam Paro are reportedly targeting a welterweight unification for the end of the year, with the fight aimed at a venue in the United States. Mike Coppinger reported the plans, and so far that is the whole outline: two belt holders, one division, one country and a window that closes when the calendar runs out. No date, city or broadcaster has been announced, and nothing has been signed.
For Haney, a date of any kind would be progress. Eddie Hearn put the problem plainly this week during an iFL TV interview about a different fighter. “Devin Haney has not boxed since November 2025,” Hearn said, and he followed it with a line aimed at the whole top of the sport: “Come on, boys, let’s get active. Let’s fight each other.” If Haney and Paro meet in December, Haney will have spent more than a year away from the ring at the stage of his career when he should be stacking wins.
Hearn also gave Haney credit for the business side. He said Haney sensed Zuffa Boxing wasn’t right for him and signed with DAZN instead. In Hearn’s telling, “Something in his mind, something in his belly said, ‘This ain’t the move for me.’” That call looks better every week. Shakur Stevenson, the WBO light welterweight champion, signed with Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing, then asked for his release three months later without ever fighting under its banner. He announced on his YouTube channel that he is now a free agent and starting his own promotional company. “I’ve been in camp for, like, eight weeks preparing for fights that I was told was going to happen. And it has not happened,” Stevenson said.
Haney’s name runs through that story too. Since Stevenson beat Teofimo Lopez on January 31, 2026, he has been linked to fights with Haney, Ryan Garcia and Gary Antuanne Russell, according to Essentially Sports, and he and Haney traded shots on social media. None of those matchups came together. Essentially Sports also cited Sean Zittel’s claim that Stevenson was offered $7 million to fight Rayo Valenzuela under Zuffa and asked for $15 million. That figure is a report, and nobody has confirmed it.
So while Stevenson’s next move is still a blank page, Haney appears to be moving toward an opponent who already has a belt to put on the table. Paro gives Haney a real unification and a reason to stop waiting on a phone call from Newark.
My take: this is the right move, and it should have happened months ago. Haney has spent too long as a name in other people’s negotiations, and a fighter of his level losing a full year to talk is the kind of waste boxing keeps inflicting on itself. A welterweight unification against a titleholder is a real fight with a real prize. If the Stevenson fight ever happens, Haney walks into it sharper and holding more gold. The first thing to watch for is a signed contract and a date before Thanksgiving, because a year-end fight in the U.S. announced any later than that starts to look like another 2027 promise.
