{"id":733753,"date":"2026-08-10T18:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/733753\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:42:18","slug":"devin-haney-accused-of-avoiding-world-champion-despite-claims-hell-fight-anyone-hes-scared-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/733753\/","title":{"rendered":"Devin Haney accused of avoiding world champion despite claims he&#8217;ll fight anyone: &#8220;He&#8217;s scared of me&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While having crafted a reputation of chasing the biggest challenges, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/devin-haney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Devin Haney<\/a> has nonetheless been accused of running \u201cscared\u201d from an outspoken rival.<\/p>\n<p>Despite what some might say, \u2018The Dream\u2019 has repeatedly displayed his appetite for legacy-defining opportunities, hence why he fought pound-for-pound legend Vasyl Lomachenko at just 24 years old.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, in 2023, Haney proved many of his detractors wrong by claiming a unanimous, albeit contentious, points victory for the undisputed lightweight crown.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, the American proved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/47067202\/haney-dominates-norman-capture-wbo-welterweight-title\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">his willingness to roll the dice against Brian Norman Jr<\/a>, a vicious puncher who he dethroned with a unanimous decision triumph in November.<\/p>\n<p>But despite becoming a three-division world champion, and remaining unbeaten, Haney has been blamed for swerving a unification match with WBA champion Rolando Romero.<\/p>\n<p>The two welterweights were in negotiations earlier this year, only for both to go their separate ways after a deal proved difficult to reach.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, \u2018Rolly\u2019 is now gearing up to defend his title against Teofimo Lopez on August 22, having been upgraded from \u2018regular\u2019 to full WBA champion following <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/rolando-romero-drops-and-shocks-ryan-garcia-in-new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">his victory over Ryan Garcia<\/a> in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/KAQjNOVFqYQ?si=16vvXCoLO24Skm_j\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fight Hub TV<\/a>, the 30-year-old insisted that fans might as well abandon their hopes for a future showdown with Haney.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe and Devin are never going to fight because he is scared of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Keyshawn Davis pulling out of their mandated contest, WBO champion Haney is now searching for a new opponent to face later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Potential options include Jack Catterall and IBF champion Liam Paro, who reportedly priced himself out of negotiations but could perhaps return with a more realistic figure in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While having crafted a reputation of chasing the biggest challenges, Devin Haney has nonetheless been accused of running&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-733753","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\/733753","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=733753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}