Devin Haney vs. Brian Norman Jr. | DAZN - November 22, 2025

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Why Haney is in an unusual spot heading into the Norman fight

DEVIN HANEY'S CAREER is potentially at a crossroads.

The fact that the 26-year-old former undisputed lightweight champion finds himself in this position is unique considering that most fighters Haney's age haven't come close to his accomplishments.

But 19 months ago, Haney's ascent in the boxing world was altered by Ryan Garcia's left hook. Haney hit the canvas three times in a fight that was ultimately declared a no-contest due to Garcia failing a drug test.

But the damage was done. Haney's critics debated his status as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, even though, technically, he didn't suffer a loss.

On Saturday, Haney will stand across the ring from another young fighter with a dangerous left hook in Brian Norman as he looks to close the chapter on what conspired at Barclays Center in April 2024.

"This fight is super important because this is a guy who they say is my kryptonite," Haney told ESPN. "They say that he has a left hook, he's powerful, he's big, he's everything. So, a win means everything to me. I'll be a champion again, and it puts me back on top where I once was."

One of the reasons Haney finds himself in this position is that his stock has taken a hit over the last two years with his outing against Garcia and a lackluster win over Jose Ramirez in May. A win over Norman, ESPN's No. 1-ranked welterweight, would help take focus off the past and put Haney right back at the top of another division. However, a loss would be absolutely devastating to his career, well before he hits his physical prime.

The worst night of Haney's career was salvaged when the decision loss to Garcia was overturned to a no contest after Gacia tested positive for the performance enhancing drug Ostarine. However, the visual of Haney getting routinely crushed by Garcia's left hook is what everyone remembers. Haney now stepping into the ring with a fighter who arguably has a bigger punch than Garcia is either incredibly courageous or terribly misguided.

"I'll be honest, I don't understand why he chose to fight Norman," Sergio Mora, former world champion turned commentator, told ESPN. "When you're coming off the worst night of your life against Ryan Garcia and then looked shell-shocked in your next fight against Jose Ramirez, why would you fight the hardest puncher at welterweight? This tells me that Haney has something to prove and wants to shut everyone up.

"Honestly, I think he's in trouble. However, if Haney takes care of this guy, then everyone will be back on the Haney train. He knows what he's doing. I just don't know if I agree with it."

OVER THE PAST several years, Haney has dealt with a constant barrage of criticism regardless of what he does inside the squared circle and who he calls out for a fight. He was tagged with the label "e-mail champion" when, after Vasiliy Lomachenko opted not to fight him, Haney was elevated to full champion by the WBC in 2019. It's a criticism that Mora said is unwarranted.

"He's not the first fighter to win a vacant title but he received more criticism for it than anyone else," Mora said. "But look what he did after that. He went to George Kambosos' backyard and beat him, twice. Then he fought and beat Lomachenko in a close fight against a pound-for-pound great. Sometimes, people hate to see winners, and all he does is win."

As a decorated undefeated fighter, Haney should be the hunted. Instead, he relishes the role of hunter.

"I practice what I preach," Haney said. "All I want is to fight the best fighters in the world. Everybody that I've called out, once they said they want to fight me, the fight then gets made ... A lot of these fighters don't do what I do. They call each other out for attention and clout. I call fighters out to make fights happen."

And every time his stock appeared to be on the decline, Haney rose to the occasion with a performance that quelled the doubters. Whether that was the pair of one-sided beatings he handed Kambosos in Australia in 2022 or the pitch-perfect shutout of former champion Regis Prograis the following year, Haney has had a way of silencing the naysayers.

"I don't know and I don't care," Haney said about the criticism lobbed at him. "All I want to do is keep beating the best fighters in the world. I have accomplished a lot, I'm still young but I've been at the top for a while now and I plan to be here for a very long time. They can say whatever they want, and I'll keep doing what I do."

But for every Kambosos and Prograis outing, there's a Garcia or Lomachenko fight that brings his pound-for-pound status into question again and has people asking if Haney is as good as he says he is.

"People love to hate me," Haney said in a 2023 interview with DAZN. "I don't know what it is. I embrace it now. What can I do? I am me."

HANEY IS BOTH brash and flashy outside the ring. And while he's a technically sound fighter, he's not necessarily exciting inside the ring, something that has drawn comparisons to all-time great Floyd Mayweather. But that style is largely dependent on winning and staying unbeaten.

"Over the past few years, he has gone on a Mayweather résumé trajectory by fighting champion after champion," Mora said, referring to Haney's fights against Joseph "JoJo" Diaz, Jorge Linares and Yuriorkis Gamboa. "Like Mayweather, he's also more of a boxer than a puncher. He may not be blessed with power but he's willing to face the power punchers. Sometimes people hate to see guys who can box on a supreme level. But if you're going to fight with that style and you're going to live that life and be flashy, be prepared for the criticism because people cannot wait to see you lose."

Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter believes how Haney projects himself to the public is not consistent with his performances in the ring.

"The criticism comes because he presents himself to be one thing and people are calling him out and demanding him to be what he says he is," Porter told ESPN. "He's flashy and presents himself as flawless, but there are still a lot of questions that Devin Haney has not answered."

Haney was anointed a part of this era's "Four Kings," along with Gervonta "Tank" Davis, Teofimo Lopez and Garcia (with Shakur Stevenson hovering around as well). Their collective rise drew a parallel to the legendary quartet of Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran, whose Hall of Fame careers overlapped each other's physical primes in the 1980s. Unfortunately, this era's foursome haven't lived up to the motif like their predecessors, who fought each other over the years. To date, Haney has fought only Garcia. Also, the "Four Kings" had distinctive qualities that made them stand out. For all that Haney has accomplished, there isn't a description to pin on the young champion.

He isn't the defensive wizard that Stevenson is, nor does he possess the debilitating power of Davis. He doesn't have the reflexes and brilliant counterpunching of Lopez, and he can't quite match the whipping hand speed of Garcia. He is "straight up and down, no special effects," as Mayweather would say. A jack of all trades and a master of none. However, what doesn't necessarily stand out to the naked eye is exactly what makes Haney unique.

"His greatest quality was his instincts, but that may be something that isn't there anymore," said Porter, who sparred with Haney years ago. "His secret power was that he instinctively knew what to throw, when to throw it and how to move. He lost a lot of that when he fought the wrong fight against Garcia. His ego got the better of him, and he forgot who he was. He needs to find that again when he fights Norman."

Haney was a prohibitive betting favorite to beat Garcia but admittedly fell victim to mind games, courtesy of Garcia's behavior heading into the fight. Although his opponent missed weight and was later busted for PEDs, Haney wasn't prepared for the one thing that everyone knew Garcia was going to throw: the left hook.

"Not knowing how to properly prepare became his worst enemy, along with his ego," Porter said. "He has all of these tools and instinctively knows what to do. But what happens when those instincts aren't working? What happens when the basic game plan isn't working or when he goes against his instincts and fights outside of the game plan? Greatness is about going the extra mile, and I don't know if he has it in him."

Mora believes that Haney is still "shell-shocked" from the Garcia fight and is "afraid to get hit," a terrible combination heading into a fight with a big puncher such as Norman. But that danger is what Haney said excites him about his upcoming fight. Haney isn't one to run from challenges, and the Garcia fight taught him a valuable lesson about himself.

"You don't know if a fighter can take a punch until they actually get hit and you don't know a fighter's heart until it gets tested," Haney said. "And when my chin and heart were tested, I showed up. I got up off the floor, not once, not twice, but three times. And I fought back. I didn't run. I fought like a warrior, and if I was going to go out that night, I was going to go out on my shield."

MORA AND PORTER disagree whether Saturday's match is a crossroads fight for Haney. Mora doesn't think that a loss erases everything that Haney accomplished, while Porter believes that how Haney decides to fight Norman will determine how he is perceived moving forward. Both agree that although a win would get the proverbial monkey off his back, the risk may outweigh the reward.

"What you don't want to do is give people more fuel to criticize you," Mora said. "If he gets rocked by Norman but wins, there will still be question marks. He has to be great, almost perfect."

Porter commends Haney for stepping into the ring with a dangerous champion who doesn't carry a household name when he could have opted for a softer touch.

But taking a soft touch simply isn't how Haney operates. Instead of running away from danger, he would rather meet it head-on and see what it has to offer.

"A lot of people fear the unknown," Haney said. "What if I get hit? What am I going to do? Well, the world knows what I'm going to do. I know what I'm going to do. It's like a weight off my shoulders just knowing that I'm able to get up when I'm down and knowing that I got a chin. The way that I beat Brian Norman, I think a lot of people are going to have to give me credit for it."

And if they don't, he'll continue to chase greatness to prove them wrong because it's simply the Devin Haney way.

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DEVIN HANEY AGREED TO JARON ENNIS FIGHT BUT 152-POUND CATCHWEIGHT WAS DEAL-BREAKER

There was a time soon after he beat Jose Ramirez when Devin Haney thought he would fight Jaron Ennis next.

The former undisputed lightweight champion assumed when he agreed to face Ennis that their fight would be contested at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. Haney only pivoted toward boxing Brian Norman Jr. after Eddie Hearn, Ennis’ promoter and Haney’s former promoter, requested that Haney move all the way up to a catch weight of 152 pounds for that difficult fight.

Haney informed The Ring that he will eventually compete at the junior middleweight maximum of 154 pounds. That time hasn’t arrived, however, because he has yet to even box as a full-fledged welterweight.

The contracted catch weight for the Oakland native’s 12-round unanimous points win against Ramirez was 144 pounds.

“We were talking about doing the Boots fight at 147,” Haney told The Ring. “I agreed to do it and then they came back with a catch weight of 152, when he was a champion at 147. That was the deal-breaker. One-forty-seven was the weight he was the champion at, and that’s what I was looking to do the fight at.”

Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs, 1 NC) relinquished his Ring, IBF and WBA welterweight titles in June because he didn’t think it was safe to keep depleting himself by dropping down to 147 pounds. He knocked out overmatched Uisma Lima (14-2, 10 KOs) in the first round of his 154-pound debut October 11 at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia.

Haney, of Henderson, Nevada, would still like to challenge himself versus Ennis after what he expects to be a successful welterweight run. He can become champion in a third division by beating Norman for his WBO belt in the co-feature of “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” card at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Right now, my main focus is Brian Norman,” Haney said. “I’m focused on him and we’ll get to all the other fights after. But I wanna become champion at 147.”

As appreciative as he is for this opportunity, Haney, 27, took a circuitous route to this title shot.

The former WBC 140-pound champ expected to face rival Ryan Garcia in a grudge rematch this fall. They agreed to fight next, but Rolando “Rolly” Romero ruined Haney’s chance at redemption when he upset Garcia by unanimous decision in the main event of The Ring’s outdoor card May 2 at Times Square in New York.

Haney then thought he secured another deal for a long-discussed showdown with Teofimo Lopez. That fight fell apart once Lopez made disparaging remarks on social media about Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and owner of The Ring.

Norman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC), of Conyers, Georgia, happily accepted the biggest fight of his career after Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) was left to seek yet another opponent.

“The first fight that we wanted to do was the Ryan Garcia fight,” Haney said. “And then it was the Teo fight. Once that fell out, we explored the Boots [Ennis] fight for a little bit. And the best guy was Brian Norman. That’s the fight that we made.”

Norman-Haney will be the third of four fights DAZN Pay-Per-View will offer for $59.99 in the United States and £24.99 in the UK.

The Ring ranks Norman No. 1 among its top 10 welterweight contenders for an unclaimed championship. In accordance with its ranking guidelines, Haney isn’t in The Ring’s top 10 at welterweight or junior welterweight.

[joshj909]

DEVIN HANEY AGREED TO JARON ENNIS FIGHT BUT 152-POUND CATCHWEIGHT WAS DEAL-BREAKER

There was a time soon after he beat Jose Ramirez when Devin Haney thought he would fight Jaron Ennis next.

The former undisputed lightweight champion assumed when he agreed to face Ennis that their fight would be contested at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. Haney only pivoted toward boxing Brian Norman Jr. after Eddie Hearn, Ennis’ promoter and Haney’s former promoter, requested that Haney move all the way up to a catch weight of 152 pounds for that difficult fight.

Haney informed The Ring that he will eventually compete at the junior middleweight maximum of 154 pounds. That time hasn’t arrived, however, because he has yet to even box as a full-fledged welterweight.

The contracted catch weight for the Oakland native’s 12-round unanimous points win against Ramirez was 144 pounds.

“We were talking about doing the Boots fight at 147,” Haney told The Ring. “I agreed to do it and then they came back with a catch weight of 152, when he was a champion at 147. That was the deal-breaker. One-forty-seven was the weight he was the champion at, and that’s what I was looking to do the fight at.”

Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs, 1 NC) relinquished his Ring, IBF and WBA welterweight titles in June because he didn’t think it was safe to keep depleting himself by dropping down to 147 pounds. He knocked out overmatched Uisma Lima (14-2, 10 KOs) in the first round of his 154-pound debut October 11 at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia.

Haney, of Henderson, Nevada, would still like to challenge himself versus Ennis after what he expects to be a successful welterweight run. He can become champion in a third division by beating Norman for his WBO belt in the co-feature of “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” card at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Right now, my main focus is Brian Norman,” Haney said. “I’m focused on him and we’ll get to all the other fights after. But I wanna become champion at 147.”

As appreciative as he is for this opportunity, Haney, 27, took a circuitous route to this title shot.

The former WBC 140-pound champ expected to face rival Ryan Garcia in a grudge rematch this fall. They agreed to fight next, but Rolando “Rolly” Romero ruined Haney’s chance at redemption when he upset Garcia by unanimous decision in the main event of The Ring’s outdoor card May 2 at Times Square in New York.

Haney then thought he secured another deal for a long-discussed showdown with Teofimo Lopez. That fight fell apart once Lopez made disparaging remarks on social media about Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and owner of The Ring.

Norman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC), of Conyers, Georgia, happily accepted the biggest fight of his career after Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) was left to seek yet another opponent.

“The first fight that we wanted to do was the Ryan Garcia fight,” Haney said. “And then it was the Teo fight. Once that fell out, we explored the Boots [Ennis] fight for a little bit. And the best guy was Brian Norman. That’s the fight that we made.”

Norman-Haney will be the third of four fights DAZN Pay-Per-View will offer for $59.99 in the United States and £24.99 in the UK.

The Ring ranks Norman No. 1 among its top 10 welterweight contenders for an unclaimed championship. In accordance with its ranking guidelines, Haney isn’t in The Ring’s top 10 at welterweight or junior welterweight.

Hearn needs to stop fornicating around with weightclasses and rehydration clauses

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Questions, friction, credibility: Brian Norman Jnr-Devin Haney has it all

There’s fight-week sniping, heaps of pride on the line and the fate of the welterweight division hanging in the balance.

The high stakes of the dead-even-odds match that is Saturday’s Brian Norman Jnr-Devin Haney fight have seemed to escalate each day, as the fighters’ father-trainers, Bill Haney and Brian Norman Snr, got into it at Thursday’s news conference.

It sets the stage for the meeting of the unbeaten sons, with 24-year-old WBO welterweight titleholder Norman, 28-0 (22 KOs), hoping to replicate the power-punching displays that have defined the past year of his career against a former two-division champion in Haney, 32-0 (15 KOs), perhaps still shaken by the three knockdowns he suffered in last year’s no-contest versus PED-positive Ryan Garcia.

“When it’s genuine, the competitive edge of the fight means so much more – it means the savage mentality is there,” ProBoxTV analyst and former welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi said on Thursday’s episode of “BS Today.” “These two guys have a lot to prove, and there’s a lot still in front of them.”

Malignaggi said it’s why he and fight fans are so passionate about not letting fights like this marinate too long.

“They’re fighting for the creation of a legacy,” Malignaggi said.

For Norman, the question is whether his elevation to champion through victories over Giovanni Santillan, Derrieck Cuevas and Jin Sasaki has made him a worthy titlist.

“Before the Santillan fight, Norman hadn’t proved anything,” Malignaggi said. “It was not championship-caliber competition.”

For Haney, his cautious showing in Times Square in May versus former unified 140lbs champion Jose Ramirez keeps alive the notion he has PTSD from the Garcia “shellacking,” as host Jimmy Smith called it.

“The mental part stays with you,” Malignaggi said. “They shouldn’t show the highlight reel of that fight, because it doesn’t count, but Devin Haney has to still prove that fight hasn’t stayed with him. The Ramirez fight didn’t prove anything.

“Does Haney have it still, or has it been beaten out of him?”

Smith asked if that indicates the heavy-handed Norman will swing for a stoppage?

“It might be something to keep in mind, but if he throws too many shots and Devin Haney starts clipping him with counters … if they’re not landing, let the fight develop,” Malignaggi advised.

Malignaggi said he believes Haney got lazy against Garcia because the latter had been acting so erratically and then missed weight before their April 2024 bout.

“I think [getting blasted by hooks] is a lesson learned,” Malignaggi said. “Haney knows to never make that mistake again.”

Whoever wins, he said, stands as the class of a revived division that will likely gain a Garcia WBC title fight against Mario Barrios in February, while Conor Benn is coming down to the weight and belt holder Rolando “Rolly” Romero might be fighting Manny Pacquiao.

“You’ve got a little bit of everything,” Malignaggi said. “This weight class is starting to live up to the way it’s supposed to be. Things are shifting in a good way.”

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weigh-in

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Weigh-in Report - Anthony Yarde Lighter Than David Benavidez - Plus undercard

Light heavyweight for Benavidez's WBC world title, 12 rounds
David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), 174.3 pounds, Miami, Florida
Anthony Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs), 173.9 pounds, Ilford, London

Welterweight for Norman's WBO belt, 12 rounds
Brian Norman Jr (28-0, 22 KOs, 2 NC), 146 pounds, Conyers, Georgia
Devin Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), 146.6 pounds, Las Vegas, Nevada

Ring, IBF, WBC, WBA junior bantamweight unification, 12 rounds
Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KOs), 114.6lbs, San Antonio, Texas
Fernando Daniel Martinez (18-0, 9 KOs), 113.2lbs, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Vacant WBO lightweight title, 12 rounds
Abdullah Mason (19-0, 17 KOs), 134 pounds, Cleveland, Ohio
Sam Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs), 134.9 pounds, Maidstone, Kent

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Brian Norman Sr. vs. Bill Haney serves as warmup for sons' highly anticipated clash at Ring IV

Brian Norman and Bill Haney, the fathers and trainers of Brian Jr. and Devin, starred in a verbal slugfest Thursday in Saudi Arabia.

While the elders vehemently traded shots, their sons spoke softly and shared promises of violence ahead of their fight Saturday as part of “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” card.

When they faced off, "The Assassin" Norman (28-0, 22 KOs) stoically stood with a long stare as Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) was on his toes, lightly jumping up and down, bobbing, weaving and flashing his gold teeth with a smile.

“I truly feel that you either got it, or you don’t,” Norman said during Thursday’s press conference. “Devin has done some wonderful things in his time. But it’s time for another face to come up here and do his own thing. It’s only so far he can go. We’re in a box. He can’t just run forever. That boy is going to sleep. I can win by any means necessary. It can go to the cards, or I can knock him out. I’m stamping my name in the game. That boy is going to sleep.”

Norman didn’t discredit any of Haney's accomplishments, which include being undisputed lightweight champion and a 140-pound titleholder, despite a lackluster win last time out in May against Jose Ramirez.

Although Haney has victories against Vasiliy Lomachenko, Regis Prograis and twice vs. George Kambosos, it's the three knockdowns he suffered against Ryan Garcia in a controversial clash that brings his chin into question —
and his chances against Norman.

Can Haney escape Norman’s prodigious left hook that Garcia landed on demand?

“I'm not big. I just have bricks for hands. I just put people out. That's it,” Norman said in a recent episode of “Inside The Ring.”

“A lot of people think I am just a power puncher. But it means nothing if you can't land it. My IQ is where it's at. You can't catch my timing. You can't catch my speed. If you do catch it, you're going to sleep. I'm just too well-rounded, diverse and versatile. Not just for Haney, but for everybody. You want to brawl? We can get into that. You want to box? We can get into that. If I am the best me, can't nobody see me.”

Norman is as confident as ever following three straight stoppage wins against Giovani Santillan, Derrieck Cuevas and Jin Sasaki in June, a knockout of the year candidate.

“I am in the transitional period of my career to let y'all know that I am one of the best in boxing,” said Norman. “Haney is the right guy to do it against. People say that he is my kryptonite. He has a jab, he has feet. I don't have feet, I don't have a jab — at least that's what they say.

“I will outthink, outwork and just straight dog him, by any means necessary. ... I don't know my limits. I don't know how far I can go.”

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Fight Night!!

[NateJR]

10/9 Norman, Haney looks scared out of his mind.

[NateJR]

19/18 Haney. Big round for Haney, big knock down. Haney was landing some nice left hooks that round. Haney went for the stoppage but wasn't able to get it.

[NateJR]

round 3 - 29/27 Haney. Haney controlled the round with his jab. Norman still looks a bit shell shocked and doesn't look like he can handle Haneys speed.

[NateJR]

round 4 - 39/36 Haney. Haney still working the jab nicely and countering nicely. Norman looks tentative and seem reluctant to let his hands go now worried about what's coming back from Haney.

[NateJR]

round 5 - 49/45 Haney. Haney looks really sharp, started to following his jab with a straight right hand that can't seem to miss. Haney is picking Norman apart now and Norman can't seem to land anything of significance.

[NateJR]

round 6 - 59/54 Haney. Two different class of fighters. Haney is easily outboxing Norman. Norman needs to land something big to turn this fight around.

[NateJR]

round 6 - 69/63 Haney. Norman seems ripe for the taking. He's not setting traps and coming in at a straight line. Neither guy did much, Haney was the only one that landed anything effective.

[amwsnw]

5-3 Haney, plus the 10-8 round.

[amwsnw]

7-4 Haney going into the last on my card but were some close rounds.

[amwsnw]

116-111 Haney. IMO.

[Sendo Takeshi]

The haters cried themself to sleep last night.
Whether you like him or not, Haney is one of the biggest talents we have in current boxing.

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