Devin Haney’s IQ and size advantage will prove the key to victory over Brian Norman Jnr on Saturday evening, according to one of the trainers who knows Haney best.
The welterweights contest Norman Jnr’s WBO title on the undercard of the light-heavyweight match-up between David Benavidez and Anthony Yarde at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Babatunde Ajayi – Yarde’s long-term trainer – expects the title to change hands.
Ajayi, through being one of the many Haney’s father and trainer Bill consulted while shaping the 27-year-old as a fighter, has watched Haney develop since he was 11 years old and was among those present in Las Vegas, alongside Yarde, the night that Haney last defended the undisputed lightweight title – against the great Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2023.
After a near-flawless career that included the one-sided victory over Regis Prograis for the WBC junior-lightweight title later that year, doubts surround Haney’s ability to truly recover from the defeat he suffered against Ryan Garcia on an evening when he suffered three knockdowns in a fight that regardless was later reclassified as a no contest on account of Garcia twice testing positive for the banned substance ostarine.
When he returned Haney struggled to impress in victory over Jose Carlos Ramirez in May, and the 24-year-old Norman Jnr, by comparison, possesses considerable momentum and is continuing to improve.
Ajayi, however, doubts that the champion possesses the intelligence to trouble Haney, and while he recognises Norman Jnr’s power, he also believes that Haney possesses a size advantage that furthers the challenger’s chances of success.
“Bill’s very calculated,” he told BoxingScene. “A lot of people’s eyebrows raised when they took this fight. This is a big fight; Norman is a big puncher. But Dev’s very cerebral – he’s been built that way under the tutelage of many, many different trainers. Some of them still alive; some of them passed; Mike McCallum; Eddie Mustafa Muhammad; Floyd Mayweather Snr; Roger Mayweather. Dev’s been brought up under all of that knowledge, and I just feel they’re looking at it like, ‘Yeah, you can punch – I’ve been in there with punchers – but he does not have my IQ’.
“Dev made a point in the press conference and I was like ‘That’s correct, Dev’. Dev’s been at this level for a long time, and he’s a young man, so he’s only getting better. I remember the first time his dad phoned me. He said ‘Yeah, we’ve got the fight; we’ve got the fight’, and it was [Jorge] Linares. I was like, ‘Linares is a hard fight, you know – that’s a serious guy’. He’s a good fighter. But Bill’s very studious. Regardless of the selling of Devin Haney, which he’s been a master at, he’s been meticulous, and results speak for themselves, right? I just don’t feel Brian Norman will have the IQ to actually catch him. We’ve seen, if Dev just wants to use his legs all night, you can’t hit him. You actually can’t hit him. So it’s interesting.
“[He’s] way too good a boxer. The fight with Prograis – that fight, oh my goodness gracious. I said ‘We are looking at the best boxer of our generation’. That’s how I saw that fight. [Prograis] should have been stopped. The capabilities of Devin Haney are just tremendous.
“I met Bill in London in 2012; we became good friends. I remember going into Floyd’s gym [the Mayweather Gym] with him and everybody just putting their head down [laughs]. I was like, ‘Hold on – this guy must be something’. The whole aura just changed – it felt like intimidation to me. I was cracking up, ‘cause I like all that stuff. We was there; we was training; Dev was sparring; taking him on the pads, and then we would go back to the Hit Factory, which Shawn Porter later bought. At the time, when Dev was young, Shawn Porter and his dad was training there every day. So many fighters came through
“I’ve seen this kid grow from 11 years old. When we was in New York [for the announcement press conference], Dev come walking down the road. I was like ‘Look at the size…’. I’d looked at Brian Norman and I was like ‘Hold on – who’s the welterweight here?’ You know what I’m saying? Dev was massive. Dev’s frame – Bill’s got proper people on the case, checking the weight; they know what he’s capable of doing – and so he can do the weight. He looked massive.”
Haney was inactive for little over a year after the defeat by Garcia, having, during 2022 and 2023, recorded successive victories over George Kambosos Jnr and the wins over Lomachenko and Prograis that established him among the finest fighters in the world.
The defeat by Garcia owed much to the naive tactics that meant him so willingly trading with one of the world’s most explosive punchers, and in his following fight against Ramirez he fought with greater caution than ever before.
It is little secret that Norman Jnr will on Saturday pose a greater threat than did Ramirez in May, and asked if he felt Haney was the same fighter he was before defeat, Ajayi responded: “He can’t be, because it’s a loss. Every fighter who suffers defeat ultimately has that first internal battle with themselves, questioning whether they’re good enough, and the external battle – dealing with all the dickheads that have never laced up a glove and wanna be judge, jury and executioner on a fighter.
“It’s double trouble, really, for a fighter. The last fight, in Times Square, against Ramirez, was really just opportunity for Dev to erase those demons and get paid well. If that was the case, it was a great way to do it, because it still left doubt in a lot of people’s mind. ‘He ain’t the same. He’s gun-shy.’ He’s like ‘Nah, we’re thinking about the next cheque’. Ultimately, when your career’s finished and all wrapped up, nobody’s caring about undisputed; youngest; it’s just the fickleness of the sport. Get your money, make sure your health’s intact, win a few belts along the way, and enjoy yourself after your career. Bill was probably thinking about the next fight, which is a big fight. Dev’s outgrown [140lbs].
“When you gamble on yourself, when you believe in yourself, my dad always says everything will be okay. Myself, Bill Haney and Devin Haney have got a long, long history together. Bill’s a very calculated guy. Very, very calculated; street hustler-turned-father. I’ve known Bill for years.
“Norman reminds me of Evander Holyfield. He’s got that down south, ‘We gon’ do it’, and that’s dangerous, because we all know Evander Holyfield wore his heart on his sleeve. He’s got that, and I was very interested in how he views boxing. He views boxing kind of like how I view boxing. We look at the fight; we don’t look at the build-up. I heard him say in an interview ‘I love watching the training – if I had the opportunity to speak to Roy Jones I’d ask him what his training’s like, not about the fact he was the greatest fighter’. He does his research; he’s a world champion for a reason.
“That’s a fight and a half. That is a fight and a half. Great fight. I’m going for Dev on points.”
