Devin Haney acknowledged
Brian Norman Jr. as boxing’s best welterweight champion now that
Jaron Ennis has moved up to the junior middleweight division.
The former undisputed lightweight and WBO junior welterweight champ still isn’t impressed with Norman’s conquests. Haney didn’t mean to be disrespectful, but claimed he’s not familiar with a single name on Norman’s record.
The Oakland, California, native assured Norman that he is so much better than anyone he has beaten in nearly 30 professional fights that it’s almost not worth discussing.
Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) will fight for the first time at the welterweight maximum of 147 pounds when challenging Norman (28-0, 22 KOs) for his WBO belt on “The Ring IV” card
DAZN will stream November 22 from ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t know how good he is,” Haney told
The Ring. “He’s done what he was supposed to do against the guys that they put in front of him. I’m on a whole different level. I been at this level since I was 20, 21 years old. So, this is nothing new for me. This is new for him, his big moment and first time at the top. I been here.”
The hard-hitting Norman, of Conyers, Georgia, produced his most impressive victory in seven years as a pro June 16, when he
violently knocked out Japanese contender Jin Sasaki (19-2-1, 17 KOs) in the fifth round at Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.
Haney, however, has beaten retired three-division champions
Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jorge Linares, former junior welterweight champs
Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez, unified lightweight champ George Kambosos twice and ex-junior lightweight champ Joseph Diaz.
Haney’s hesitance to engage drew widespread criticism following
his comfortable points win over Ramirez on May 2 in New York’s Times Square. Norman, 24, is a harder puncher than Ramirez, yet Haney, 26, is confident his boxing ability, defensive prowess and experience will set him apart from the defending champion.
“It will be too much against a guy like me,” Haney said. “I’m gonna show that I’m levels above him. I been fighting these guys at the top level, the best of the best fighters in the world for some time now. He hasn’t. I’m the first guy at the top that he’s fought. Other than that, I genuinely don’t know one person that he’s beat."
Norman nonetheless is listed as a slight favorite over Haney by DraftKings (minus-135/plus-105). Haney’s reluctance to engage with Ramirez occurred in his first fight in more than a year following a majority-decision defeat to
Ryan Garcia that was changed to a no-contest because the latter tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing