Heaney wants to be “paid well” to return, Hearn says

Eddie Hearn said that Devin Haynie wanted to be paid well for his setup fight, not the money usually paid for such matches. He believes that BLK Prime may have been willing to pay Haney (31-0, 15 KO) as much money as he wanted.

Expensive setup

According to Hearn, Devin still wants the money to be paid for the compelling fights fans want to see. That’s unrealistic for a tune-up fight designed to knock off the rust, show him off against a major opponent and boost his confidence.

Hearn says Turki Al Sheek wants big fights, and that’s not in line with what Henny needs to prepare him for his rematch with Ryan Garcia. If Devin were to face a good opponent on Turka’s card, there’s a good chance she’d lose if it was a half-decent guy with a little pop in his punches.

Turki probably wouldn’t feed Hani a soft job like George Kambosos Jr., Regis Prograis or Jorge Linares. He would like real quality like Jaron Ennis, Richardson Hitchins, Eimantas Stanionis or Brian Norman Jr. All of those fighters would probably beat Haneya in style.

Hearn said Boxingscene that Haney wasn’t the type of guy who would be willing to accept $500,000 to $1 million for a tune-up. He “I wanted to be well paid” for a fight that wouldn’t normally rate that kind of test.

“For the amount of money he wants to make a comeback fight, it’s not easy because, in general, a comeback fight is not a great fight. Who will pay for it? If you can find someone who will pay big money for a comeback fight, it might be BLK Prime.”

This suggests that Haynie still considers himself a big name or champion despite losing to Ryan Garcia in three knockdowns, most of them over 12 rounds on April 20 last year. The loss was later overturned by the New York State Athletic Commission due to Ryan’s positive test for the banned PED Ostarine, but fans still saw it as a loss.

It will be interesting to see who Devin will fight at BLK Prime on March 25th. Will they let him wrestle with a can of tomatoes and pay him top dollar, or will they insist on value for their money? If so, Hannay will likely lose and spoil his chances for a rematch with Garcia unless he is ready to fight him after the loss. I wouldn’t let Kingi do that because he’s also not interested in risky fights.

“Mart, I’m back,” said Devin Haney on X. BLK then replied: “See you on March 25th at BLK Prime.”