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For Paro, a Haney showcase – most likely staged in the United States – would have represented his first defence of the IBF welterweight crown won against Lewis Crocker in June.<\/p>\n
In recent days however, US reports have suggested Paro effectively priced himself out of the fight by demanding too much via promoters No Limit.<\/p>\n
As a result, Haney is now said to be chasing a world title defence against Englishman Jack Catterall.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the drama over the weekend, former world champion Timothy Bradley even suggested Paro was ducking Haney by asking for too much money. <\/p>\n
\u201cDid Liam Paro price himself out? Is that another form of duck?\u201d Bradley asked, before then answering his own question with: \u201cThat\u2019s another form of ducking right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, when contacted this week, Paro strenuously denied the suggestions he was pricing himself out of the contest, and instead said it was Haney who was deliberately avoiding him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaney is ducking me,\u201d Paro told Fox Sports Australia. \u201cI\u2019ve said I\u2019m good to fight by the end of October, and we ain\u2019t heard a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liam Paro in Brisbane on June 25, 2026. Photo Steve PohlnerSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Pushed on his desire to fight Haney next, the popular Queenslander continued: \u201cI\u2019ll fight him next no worries.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know I\u2019ll fight anyone. And I\u2019ve proved that my whole career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll fight him in his backyard or mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the IBF welterweight champion. This is a big unification fight with a lot on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, No Limit promoter George Rose also confirmed his client wants the Haney fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have plans in place for Liam and, originally, Haney wasn\u2019t in those,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut after speaking with Team Paro, they\u2019ve indicated to us that if we can get the right deal done, it\u2019s the big fight they want.<\/p>\n
\u201cParo versus Haney is a big fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest drama continues a hectic few weeks for the welterweight division, with Haney initially thought to be finalising a fight with his WBO mandatory, fellow American star Keyshawn Davis.<\/p>\n
However, that fight surprisingly collapsed after Davis withdrew from negotiations, and amid suggestions he was unsatisfied with a proposed purse of US$2.13 million.<\/p>\n
Following the breakdown, there were then whispers of a rematch between Haney and Brian Norman Jnr, who he beat for the WBO welterweight crown last November.<\/p>\n
However, Haney quickly shot those down on social media last week, tweeting of a second fight: \u201cIt\u2019s not happening. I tell you that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team then opened discussions with Paro, and were thought to be finalising an October fight.<\/p>\n
But now there are suggestions that fight may also be off, and Team Haney could be shifting focus to Catterall.<\/p>\n
Devin Haney weighs in for his welterweight bout against Jose Ramirez at the Manhattan Center for their fight in Times Square on May 01, 2025 in New York City. Al Bello\/Getty Images\/AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n
Certainly Catterall\u2019s manager, Sam Jones, has appeared to suggest as much via social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say advanced [negotiations], but we\u2019ve accepted the fight and the date proposed,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe are easy to deal with. We\u2019re not greedy or delusional.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get the fight on and get the contracts signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I hope isn\u2019t the case is that Jack is being used as a decoy. Paro is scared of taking the fight for less money than he\u2019s wanting. All I can tell you is we\u2019ve accepted the fight and the date and location. So if the fight doesn\u2019t happen, it\u2019s not on Jack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere this week, both Ryan Garcia and Rolly Romero have shown little interest in a Haney unification fight.<\/p>\n
In fact, Garcia said he would not be putting his WBC strap on the line unless Haney first apologises to him.<\/p>\n
Bizarrely, it comes after Garcia tested positive for a banned substance, ostarine, following his majority decision win between the pair in April 2024 \u2013 which resulted in the bout being declared a \u2018No Contest\u2019 and him being suspended for a year.<\/p>\n
‘You could sell water to a f**** whale’ | 03:03<\/p>\n
Garcia will next defend against England\u2019s Conor Benn in September, and discussed his issues with Haney during an interview with The Ring\u2019s Mike Coppinger.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil he admits that they f***** with my s***,\u201d Garcia said, \u201cor something there was going on, I\u2019m never gonna fight him \u2014 I promise you. Unless he tells the truth, I won\u2019t ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia maintains his innocence over the positive result.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Haney\u2019s] little brother supposedly knew that I did [it], I was gonna get caught with steroids,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThey never address it. They never say that. Why would his little brother go on his [Instagram] story and say, \u2018Ryan Garcia\u2019s gonna get caught for steroids.\u2019 How the f*** did you know? Right? Tested for four months straight \u2014 nothing, nothing, clean, clean, clean, clean, clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cF****** all of a sudden, f***** three weeks, four weeks after the fight, \u2018Oh yeah, by the way, Ryan got caught with steroids.\u2019 Wouldn\u2019t you have found that right away? You know? Especially if you tested before and after? Like there\u2019s a lotta little sketchy things to that. And like I said, bro, I won\u2019t ever fight them again, unless they start telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia stressed he wasn\u2019t simply trying to build hype for the fight with his threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what I\u2019m trying to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just specifically saying if you guys don\u2019t admit some s***, you won\u2019t ever see [the rematch], bro. And guess what? It\u2019s gonna eat you forever because that iconic picture lives on forever. Whenever you talk s***, all I gotta do is post the picture of me [standing] over you. You gotta sit with that. So, buddy, either you gotta start telling the truth or you won\u2019t ever catch this fade again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson v Thorslund: Fight Highlights | 09:04<\/p>\n
Elsewhere this week, WBA welterweight champ Rolly Romero also shot down the chances of himself and Haney throwing down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he told FightHub TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sent him an offer, a great lucrative offer. He decided not to take the fight because Devin Haney Promotions isn\u2019t a real promotion company, as we see he can\u2019t bid in own purse bids because he\u2019s not a real promotion company.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn top of that, they\u2019re always fighting for a going out of business sale. But regardless of everything, me and Devin are never going to fight because Devin is scared of me, and I\u2019m not going to waste my time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Liam Paro has accused American superstar Devin Haney of deliberately ducking a unification blockbuster between the pair,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-852869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}