{"id":431232,"date":"2026-02-17T23:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431232\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:26:07","slug":"devin-haney-calls-out-unbeaten-world-champion-i-want-to-be-first-to-beat-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431232\/","title":{"rendered":"Devin Haney calls out unbeaten world champion: “I want to be first to beat him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Devin Haney<\/a> has set his sights on a new rival in a different weight division, rather than targeting unification matches with Rolando Romero<\/a>, Lewis Crocker and the winner of Mario Barrios<\/a> vs Ryan Garcia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The WBO world welterweight champion claimed his title in November, dethroning Brian Norman Jr with a comprehensive points victory<\/a> after flooring his man in the second round.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, Haney had suffered a majority decision defeat to Garcia, which was later overturned to a no-contest after his opponent tested positive for banned substance ostarine.<\/p>\n

As a result, the 27-year-old has managed to maintain his unbeaten record while becoming a three-weight world champion, beating the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko and Regis Prograis along the way.<\/p>\n

But despite previously expressing his desire to unify the major titles at 147lbs, it seems \u2018The Dream\u2019 has now become fascinated by a vastly different ambition.<\/p>\n

Shortly after defending his IBF title against George Kambosos Jr in June, unbeaten world super-lightweight champion Richardson Hitchins called for a showdown with Haney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Africa\u2019 claimed his strap with an impressive points victory over Liam Paro in 2024, but now looks to defend it against Oscar Duarte on the undercard of Barrios-Garcia this Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ahead of their encounter, Haney decided to take to social media, posting on X<\/a> that he hopes Hitchins retains his title and moves up to welterweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cLmao Africa talk so much s***. I want him to win his fight. I wanna [be] the one to beat his ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

It appears that Haney has taken issue with Hitchins\u2019 expletive and belligerent call-out last summer, suggesting their potential clash would come with no small amount of bad blood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devin Haney has set his sights on a new rival in a different weight division, rather than targeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-431232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}