Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez have signed for a fight at a 145-lb catchweight for August 16th in Saudi Arabia. It still isn’t official.
Haney vs. Lopez: Fight Details
The fight won’t involve any world titles at the welterweight division. It’s the minor mega-fight that Team Haney wanted after their plans for a rematch with Ryan Garcia went up in smoke at Times Square last month. Devin’s dad, Bill Haney, immediately started pressing for the Teofimo fight once Ryan was out.
Although Teofimo doesn’t fight at welterweight, that was the one that Bill wanted for his son, Devin, at welterweight. In other words, Bill was thinking of a business-type fight. There are fighters that Haney could have targeted, like WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr., but he’s not as popular as Teofimo, and he’s a pure puncher who would be a nightmare for Devin with his fragile mandible.
Earlier today, Teofimo (22-1, 13 KOs) posted a short clip of him dancing on social media, which was a hint that something big was about to be announced. He’s made a public apology a couple of days earlier to Turki Alalshikh, looking to smooth things over after he’d trash-talked him on X.
Pugboxing broke the story tonight of the Haney vs. Lopez fight for August 16th in Saudi Arabia. Turki still needs to make it official.
Times Square Dull Fights
It’s a big fight involving two fighters who turned in subpar performances last month on the May 2nd Times Square card in New York. Teofimo and Haney both moved around for 12 rounds, winning dull fights against Arnold Barboza Jr. and Jose Ramirez.
Teofimo should win this fight against Haney without too many problems if he fights with some aggression. He’s got the power advantage over Haney, but he’ll have to fight a lot better than he showed last month against Barboza Jr. Haney might outbox Teo if he shows all night again like he did on the Times Square card.
Staging the Teofimo-Haney fight on August 16th means it’s going to be on the same night as the Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach 2 rematch, which will be shown on a different network. If money doesn’t matter for Turki, it won’t be a big deal if the PPV numbers for the Haney vs. Lopez fight aren’t outstanding.
Haney-Lopez PPV Challenges
One problem that could hurt the numbers is that there’s not a lot of interest from fans in a pay-per-view event involving Lopez and Haney. Neither of them is a PPV fighter. The only reason Haney fought on PPV for his last two events is that the card was stacked for the May 2nd event, and Ryan Garcia was involved. Without him, Haney and Teofimo aren’t PPV fighters.
