Haney vacates WBC 140 title; Puello elevated from interim status
Re-classified as 'champion in recess'; won't fight mandatory Martin
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Devin Haney on Monday vacated the WBC junior welterweight title and the organization fulfilled his request to be re-classified as its “champion in recess” while he considers his next move.
In a corresponding move, the WBC also elevated Alberto Puello from interim titleholder to full titlist and ordered him to negotiate with mandatory challenger Sandor Martin for his first defense.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs), 25, of Las Vegas, retained the title despite a majority decision loss to Ryan Garcia on April 20 because Garcia was 3.2 pounds overweight and ineligible to win it. Garcia also tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug Ostarine and last week the New York State Athletic Commission suspended Garcia for one year, had him forfeit his $1.1 million official contract purse and the result of the fight was changed to a no contest, which restored Haney’s undefeated record.
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Meantime, the WBC had also ordered Haney to make his mandatory defense against Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), 30, a southpaw from Spain, but when the fight went a purse bid last week Martin co-promoter Top Rank was the only bidder at $2,420,000. Haney’s share would have been $1,524,600 plus a chance to win 10 percent of the bid ($242,000 bonus) that the WBC would hold and give as bonus to the winner.
After the purse bid Haney, who is a promotional free agent, told Fight Freaks Unite he had been making more than $1.5 million per fight for the past few years and was unsure if he would go through with the fight. He believes Garcia’s ingestion of PEDs caused him to lose and damaged his marketability, which was why there was only one bidder on the fight and for not much money relatively speaking.
“(The Garcia situation) definitely had a major impact,” Haney said. “I haven’t made a million-and-a-half since my beginning days of signing with (former promoter) Matchroom (in 2019). I made $1.7 million — I don’t want to speak on exact numbers — but I haven’t made $1.5 million (per fight) since the beginning stages of my contract with Matchroom, so it affected me.
“My lawyers and team will do what they go to do to prove that in court against Ryan Garcia and we will take legal action because it has affected me, not only financially but mentally, everything.”
In the days since that interview, Haney elected to seek the “in recess” designation, which would give him the ability to get an immediate WBC title shot upon his return if he wants it.
Of course, there is also a strong likelihood he will pursue a bigger, more lucrative fight against a better known opponent.
Puello (23-0, 10 KOs), 29, of the Dominican Republic, won the vacant WBC interim title via split decision in an upset of Gary Antuanne Russell on June 15 on the undercard of the Gervonta Davis-Frank Martin PBC on Prime PPV undercard in Las Vegas and has quickly found himself as the full titleholder.
For Puello it was a return to prominence after a 2023 in which he was set to make his first WBA title defense against Rolando Romero in May but tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene in a random Voluntary Anti-Doping Association test a month before the fight. He was dropped from the bout, stripped of the title and suspended for six months before returning for a win in December and then getting a shot at the WBC interim belt.
After the loss, Russell (17-1, 17 KOs), 28, a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Capitol Heights, Maryland, petitioned the WBC seeking an immediate rematch against Puello. The WBC said that “after careful review, the WBC has granted an indirect rematch that will allow Russell to fight the winner of the now-ordered bout between champion Puello and Sandor Martin.”
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Haney photo: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy
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So much for sueing Garcia he should of taken the money and fought Martin get his career back on track drugs or no drugs he got beaten up by Garcia and he is damaged goods
Haney is delusional about his earning power and the current reality. He was overpaid to take Lomachenko’s spot in hostile territory against Kambosos, had one of the most generous rematch clauses in history (Kambosos was the A side both times), was rewarded with the Loma fight (again Devin is the B-side) as TR was trying to keep that belt in house, fought at “home” in SF where Matchroom was more invested in Prograis winning (and initially the crowd seemed to be too), so again, inflated salary, and finally a definite B side (C side?) vs Ryan Garcia.
Haney has fought his way into these opportunities, so I’m not taking that away from him, but he needs a bigger name to carry the promotion. $1.75 mil for beating Sandor Martin, who alone couldn’t pull a gate of $100,000 in the U.S., is quite generous. Devin, however, is spoiled and too egotistical to look at the reality of his last 4 paydays.