All fighters say they aren't scared of anyone but few are willing to prove it like Devin Haney.

Haney will make his welterweight debut against reigning WBO champion Brian Norman Jr as part of a stacked 'Ring IV' card on November 22 from the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Once the fight booking was made official, fans praised Haney for his willingness to step up to the plate and face arguably the best available opponent at 147-pounds for his divisional debut.

The 26-year-old appreciates the praise, but refuses to mask his true intentions: Norman was never his first option.

Haney hoped to rematch Ryan Garcia following their contentious first 12-round catchweight bout in April 2024, changed to a no-contest after Garcia tested positive for banned substance ostarine in two pre-fight drugs tests.

Once the unpredictable Garcia was outpointed by Rolando 'Rolly' Romero and underwent hand surgery, virtually ruling him out of action for the rest of the year, Haney focused his attentions elsewhere. A matchup with Teofimo Lopez was brewing, before their agreement fell by the wayside at the eleventh hour before a proposed August 16 date.

The former undisputed lightweight world champion also tried to lure Jaron 'Boots' Ennis into a matchup and while initially realistic, Team Ennis made an outlandish demand which left him considering other options.

"They came with Boots," Haney told a group of reporters. "We said let's do it but they wanted to do it at a catchweight of 152. There was no point in doing that, we never even fought at 147."

Ring champion Ennis, who vacated his IBF and WBA titles, announced after his 6th-round stoppage of Eimantas Stanionis that he would be moving up to junior middleweight.

Haney, who ended his year-long layoff with an uninspiring 12-round points win over Jose Ramirez on May 2 as part of the Ring's Times Square event, met the former unified champion at a 143-pound catchweight to test the waters.

Now ready to compete as a fully-fledged welterweight, he'll face an in-form 24-year-old who has made two successful title defences in 2025 - first against Derrieck Cuevas and a Knockout of the Year candidate last month against Jin Sasaki.

Norman (28-0, 22 KOs) has proven himself a worthy adversary according to Haney and while they wished Garcia, Lopez and Ennis were available, the two-division titleholder has no issue challenging another unbeaten champion to try making more history.

"The next best guy was Brian Norman, so that's what we went with."