Eddie Hearn’s Ambitious Plan For Haney Vs. Paro Unification Fight Faces Multiple Hurdles

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearns has a new IBF light welterweight champion, Liam Paro, whom he’s eager to match against WBC champ Devin Haney in an Australian unification fight at 140.

(Photo by Amanda Westcott/Matchroom.)

Mandatory Challengers and Rehydration Limits

There are four obstacles that Hearn would need to overcome for his unification vision to become a reality:

1. Haney’s WBC mandatory Sandor Martin
2. Paro’s IBF mandatory Richardson Hitchinson
3. IBF’s 10-lb rehydration limit
4. Bill Haney’s desire for a big-money PPV fight for Devin.

Haney and Paro’s mandatory can be worked around by either paying a step aside or petitioning the IBF and WBC to allow the unification to take precedence. If that fails, a step aside can be paid to Hitchins and Sandor to get them out of the way.

A bigger problem is the IBF’s 10-lb rehydration limit, which would prevent Haney from rehydrating as high as he normally does after weighing in.

If Haney has to withhold fluids overnight after weighing in for a fight against Paro, that would likely be a killer, as he rehydrates into the mid-160s for his fights at 140.

I don’t think it’s physically possible for Haney to keep his weight at 150 or below on a fight-date weight check. If he could somehow do it, he would be drained and vulnerable against Paro.

With the wrestling style that the southpaw Paro uses, a weight-drained Haney would be at his mercy. If Haney is a walking zombie from the IBF’s 10-lb rehydration limit, Paro will wear him out with his holding and wrestling.

Financial Concerns and Market Appeal

The final straw that would prevent a Haney-Paro unification fight is Bill Haney, who wants his son, Devin, to be involved in PPV fights that sell.

A fight between Haney and Paro would be an utter disaster for DAZN PPV because it’s not sellable to U.S boxing fans who have never heard of Paro. It would bomb badly on pay-per-view and hurt Haney’s negotiating power for fights against Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Isaac Cruz, or a rematch with Ryan Garcia.

The Australian Paro (25-0, 15 KOs) unseated IBF 140-lb champion Surbriel Matias (20-2, 20 KOs) by a wide twelve-round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Coliseo Juan Aubín Cruz Abreu in Manati, Puerto Rico.

Paro, 28, wasn’t expected to win, but he took the John ‘The Quietman’ Ruiz approach to the fight by punching and tying up Matias all night to win a surprisingly easy unanimous decision.

Paro’s excessive holding during the entire fight with Matias made it unwatchable, and many fans on social media said they turned it off and focused on watching the more interesting fight shown on PBC on Prime Video PPV.