Promoter Bob Arum wants to set up a fight between his fighter WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez and the recently badly beaten Devin Haney next if Teo is victorious in his title defense this Saturday night against veteran Steve Claggett in Miami.
Teofimo’s Unfulfilled Promise
Arum has failed to turn Teofimo (20-1, 13 KOs) into a star despite his early career promise when he defeated Vasily Lomachenko in 2020.
Since that fight with Loma, Teofimo’s performances and opposition have been lackluster, leading some to believe that the New Yorker will never achieve stardom.
Haney has given up his WBC light welterweight title and has been given the ‘Champion in recess’ tag by the World Boxing Council following his twelve-round majority decision loss to Ryan Garcia on April 20th. Thus far, Haney has sounded uncertain about his future path.
Haney has repeatedly mentioned wanting to pursue a legal case against Ryan to make him pay for testing positive for PEDs, which he would have to prove he intentionally took. He also wants a rematch with him. Aside from Ryan, Haney hasn’t mentioned wanting to fight anyone else.
Financial Obstacles to Haney-Teofimo Match
If Arum is going to motivate Haney to take a fight with Teofimo, he would need to offer him a lot of money because it’s a risky match-up for him, and it would put his goal of a rematch against Ryan Garcia in jeopardy.
Haney isn’t going to take a fight and risk his newly updated unbeaten record at stake against Teofimo without being given a goldmine by Arum. Unfortunately, a fight between Haney and Teofimo wouldn’t guarantee PPV success. Haney lacks charisma and a large fan base.
Teofimo is in the same boat and sometimes sounds unhinged when giving interviews, drifting off topic frequently and babbling nonsense.
It’s difficult to imagine a Haney vs. Teofimo promotion leading to a big PPV fight that would make it worthwhile for Arum and ESPN to invest money. Again, Haney would likely want a huge guaranteed purse to take the fight with Teofimo because he would be risking his lucrative rematch with Ryan Garcia.
Arum’s Vision for Teofimo
“There are a lot of 140-lb champions who would make really good matches for Lopez,” Arum told Sky Sports about his hopes of setting up unification fights for WBO champion Teofimo Lopez at light welterweight.
“There’s Devin Haney – he and Haney would make a great fight,” Arum continued. “There is a lot of activity in those weight divisions, and if Teofimo comes through [against Steve Claggett on Saturday], he will have a lot of big fights in front of him.”
Arum might not be able to convince Haney to fight Teofimo unless he’s willing to risk losing a small fortune with guaranteed purses.
Can Arum persuade Haney to take a smaller purse with the incentive of making dough on the backend if his fight with Teofimo brings in a lot of PPV buys on ESPN?
It’s unlikely to happen now because Haney will make a lot of money if he changes his tune about suing Ryan and sweet talks him into giving him a lucrative rematch when his suspension is up in April 2025. That’s a bigger paying fight for Haney than a match against Teofimo, who isn’t a draw and is sitting on a nosediving career.