Ahead of his fight against Brian Norman on November 22 in Riyadh, Devin Haney said he is in great shape as he prepares to face the WBO’s 147lbs champion.
Haney, bidding for a title in a third weight class, told Ariel Helwani: “I feel so much better at 147, I eat what I want. My training camps aren’t based around weight, like they were.”
Haney, who said he will leave for Saudi Arabia on November 1 to make his final preparations, said the increased weight had allowed him to focus more on strategy and fight specifics than dropping weight.
Of Norman, Haney said: “They say he’s kryptonite for my style, that’s why this fight is such an important fight for me, to turn the non-believers into believers and prove the doubters and naysayers wrong.”
The 26-year-old is 32-0 1 No Contest, with the No Contest coming after Ryan Garcia tested positive for PEDs around their April 2024 fight.
Haney, who also thinks he will go to 154lbs and 160lbs before his career is over, said of life at welterweight: “I plan on being here for a while.”
Haney also told Helwani that he had signed for the Garcia rematch and that he’d signed to face Teofimo Lopez, but neither bout materialized.
He said he felt Norman was the best at welterweight in the world, and added: “I’m a throwback fighter. I don’t do it for them to give me my credit, that’s just the type of person I am. I want to fight the best fighters in the world. I want to test myself against the best, and it’s boxing at the end of the day. If I lose, then it is what it is. I want to test myself, though. I think that’s why boxing’s where it is now because guys don’t test themselves. Everybody cares about the ‘0’, everybody wants to be undefeated, but I genuinely want to test myself against the best fighters in the world.”
Asked whether he felt he might fight Garcia again in the future, Haney replied: “Are we friends? No. But will we talk to make the fight happen? Yeah.”
Haney has worked with many of boxing’s major promoters and said he was now dealing directly with the powerful Turki Alalshikh. He was uncertain about Top Rank’s future given that they do not currently have a broadcast partner in place, but said: “We know that Top Rank has the best matchmakers in boxing. We know that. They’re the best at building fighters. I think a guy like Eddie [Hearn], he’s good at building fighters but he will put his guys in tough and they’ll fuck around and lose. We’ve seen it.”
Haney also said he was not well versed about the Muhammad Ali Revival Act that is currently being ushered in through congress, despite so many speaking out against it online and in interviews.
“I think it should stay how it is,” said Haney. “It was put in place to protect fighters. It was put in place to protect us, of course they’re going to try and get it out… every person I talk to, they are saying the same thing. I don’t understand how it’s even a thing, why we’re not standing up to protect it.”
