Who Seriously Wants Devin Haney Next?

WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney in 2021 is slowly making his case as the boogeyman in the division. Better yet, a case can be made that no one has at least on social media has backed down from calling anyone out and is more avoided than Haney.

I mean, who can he face realistically next? The latest person called out Rolly Romero decided to stick to his Onlyfans account instead of the challenging Haney citing ” a waste of time”. I disagree, but this is where Haney is out on the list of folks at 135.

Last seen in the ring in a decision win over Jorge Linares back in May in Las Vegas. To drive this home, the latest on who he is fighting next so far can be summed up in his tweet yesterday training old-school style by chopping wood either for the next “Winter X Games” trials or for that cozy log cabin outside his native Las Vegas.

Either way, no opponent has been slated or tabbed yet in the latest for Haney to defend his portion of the WBC title.

Old school training 🪓🪵#TheDream pic.twitter.com/OGpF5YpTRE

— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) September 23, 2021

So where is he at with this and how long will Haney be chopping wood in anticipation for a fight to be lined up?

That may be a minute. So far, the sanctioning body isn’t helping out his case as they instead ordered Ryan Garcia to face Jo Jo Diaz instead of Diaz challenging Haney as the mandatory opponent. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn who helps promote Haney vented his frustration in it to Pro Boxing Fans:

“Jo Jo Diaz put on an Instagram story the other day going, ‘oh, Eddie Hearn, he talks sh!t’. What am I talking sh!t for? You’re the mandatory for Devin Haney and he turns around and he says, ‘why didn’t the champion ask to order it?’ Well, I’ve never known a champion ask the governing body to order the mandatory challenger. The mandatory challenger, all he should want is to fight the champion, you’ve just won a final eliminator.

“So, Jo Jo Diaz, Ryan Garcia is not fighting you this year. So what are you going to do? Are you going to take a warm-up fight or something? Fight Devin Haney. He won’t fight Devin Haney, because he knows he’ll get beat, that’s why. It’s ridiculous. What’s the point in having a final eliminator if you’re not going to order that against the champion. Then two guys ducked Devin Haney and then you make them fight each other. It’s a duck off.”

While JoJo Diaz is looking to take on Ryan Garcia instead of Haney, you can those two to the list who seemingly aren’t lined up to face Haney. This in part is the WBC’s fault for sentencing Haney to two mandatories defenses which for the year have been rearranged and dismantled. Hearn speaking with WBC President, Mauricio Sulaiman, stated that the sanctioning body would be happy to see Haney face Diaz. That response didn’t sound like an immediate order so this sounds like the WBC will mandate this for Haney sometime next year.

Haney is the odd man out at 135 once again and while everyone in the division keeps calling him out, seems the undefeated lightweight (25-0, 15 KOs) is left waiting on whose next and at this point, even wants to contend with him.