Comments Thread For: Devin Haney Relinquishes All Lightweight Belts Ahead of Regis Prograis WBC 140-Pound Title Challenge

[HandsofIron]

When something like this happens, each sanctioning body should call for a four-man tournament.

Each has 15 boxers in their Top 15; some are in other's. So, you give 16 men, total, a slot in the tournament.

WBC, IBF, WBO, and WBA all hold separate tournaments.

Then, you have the champions face off in a four-man tournament to crown undisputed.

This would surely make the belts more interesting and competitive.

In a perfect world, that's how boxing should be run, and it actually used to be like that back in old days but now the promoters call the shots.

TR, GB, PBC etc... will all be vying for that vacant, 135 WBO belt.

[El_Mero]

Lomachenko could have a fight for a belt against Shakira Stevenson.

He didn’t need to wait for this to happen and then fight Kambosos.

Last I read it's Loma/Kambo for one of the belts, early next year

[Tag, You're Hit]

ESPN are reporting he's planning a title fight at 147 next.

Anyway, this is a good decision by Haney. He'd clearly outgrown the decision.

Thanks for the info. I just checked that article out. If he gets by Prograis - I have a sneaking su****ion he won't - I bet the 147 fight he's eyeing is against whoever the weak belt holder ends up being (Barrios? - especially since the WBC has Haney's back - though Barrios is supposedly talking about fighting Ennis). That would be fine since it'd be his first fight at 147 - so long as he takes on a serious opponent after that. It doesn't necessarily mean Boots directly after a belt because that could be a fight that gets built up.

[BustedKnuckles]

When something like this happens, each sanctioning body should call for a four-man tournament.

Each has 15 boxers in their Top 15; some are in other's. So, you give 16 men, total, a slot in the tournament.

WBC, IBF, WBO, and WBA all hold separate tournaments.

Then, you have the champions face off in a four-man tournament to crown undisputed.

This would surely make the belts more interesting and competitive.

Now that is what boxing needs! What a blast that would be to watch.

[BustedKnuckles]

Last I read it's Loma/Kambo for one of the belts, early next year

I don't like Loma getting a belt like that. He aready showed twice that he couldn't finish the job to earn it. Getting an up-for-grabs belt against Kambo isn't exactly redemption, and for me, he ought to either seek redemption or move on.

If he gets that one, will he even fight again and take on a legit top challenger again? Or will he retire as lw champ? I might know nothing, but I lean towards the second option.

Additionally, I hope he doesn't become a guy who gets a belt and then fights hyped up no-hopers. It would be a worse end for his name than just moving on now (even though no-hope fights pay the bills).

[Tomsmacker]

Devin Haney knows when to get out

[Slim6583]

As a boxing fan, this gets old, not seeing the fights I wanna see in a timely manner, but I know it's part of the dirty business of boxing. Just wished the guys with the belts fought the number #1 & number #2 guys to start this party and so on down the line. Remember the old game Chutes & Ladders? Well that's boxing.

[Bullrider]

Not a huge surprise. It's expected. He's huge even at 140.

[theface07]

I can't understand why some people here are acting like Haney did some type of heroic duty for boxing by relinquishing his titles at 135. The guy is clearly too big for lightweight and is never going back there again. What else was he going to do? And to think people are saying Crawford should "take note" or follow suit, that's not even a remotely fair comparison. Bud is still at 147 and is currently in talks with Spence regarding the rematch. The weight hasn't even been decided on yet, let alone the date. Why would Bud drop his titles if he doesn't even know if he's fighting at 147 or 154 in the rematch?
Furthermore, Devin has to be one of the most boring fighters out there and has a horrible personality to boot. I don't know if Regis can beat him but I sure hope he does. Devin is such an uppity duschebag.

[drablj]

I can't understand why some people here are acting like Haney did some type of heroic duty for boxing by relinquishing his titles at 135.

maybe you didn't follow what other unified champions have usually done. they keep their belts as long as possible (for a long time) knowing full well that they won't fight assigned mandatories and are going to be stripped. they pretend they want to fight, waste time and do nothing. sanctioning organization finally schedule a purse bid. they still pretend they are willing to fight and then at the last minute they back out, vacate or say that purse is too low (their own promoter offer ridiculously low bid on purpose).

so the end result is the same, the unified champion lose 1 or more belts. the difference is how long other boxers have to wait. boxing is so ****** now that we actually applaud guys when they are fair. the worst thing is wasting time. nobody can get it back and boxer's career is relatively short compared to other jobs.

do you understand now?

it should be like this: one month at most after champion's last fight, he has to declare his next step (his next opponent, vacating, retiring, absence because of long term injury...). if not, sanctioning body should schedule a purse bid in the next 30 days. that way boxers have enough time to think, promoters to act and organize fights. fans get to see something. force them to fight. bodies are too lenient. champions have a fight, do nothing for 6 months and then attempt to negotiate with someone, usually irrelevant guy. this is so broken i don't know how people still love boxing.