Haney Vacates WBC Title: A Strategic Retreat Or Market Miscalculation?

Devin Haney is no longer the WBC light welterweight champion, meaning he pushed to get his unbeaten record back but lost his more valuable prize, his title.

Haney’s decision to give up his WBC title rather than keeping it and defending against his mandatory Sandor Martin isn’t playing too well with fans, as they view it as a ducking move by him.

Market Value vs. Performance: A Disconnect?

They see this as another example of Haney believing his market value is better than it is, thinking he should get massive purses for his fights. Haney is not fighting at the level where he deserves bigger purses.

There isn’t a fighter at 140 that could command a massive purse fighting Sandor Martin, so Haney should have taken that fight if he were confident of winning. If Haney wasn’t confident, he did the right thing by vacating his WBC title rather than risking a potential career-ending loss to Martin.

His performances against Ryan Garcia, Vasily Lomachenko, and Jorge Linares don’t prove that. Haney didn’t perform like a fighter who should be commanding mega-millions, nor did his efforts in his dull wins over George Kambosos Jr., Regis Prograis, and Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz.

On Monday, the World Boxing Council gave Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) their WBC ‘champion in recess’ designation and elevated interim champ Alberto Puello to the full light welterweight champion.

Haney’s Next Move

It’s unclear what Haney plans to do with his career now. He’s talked about wanting to take some time off, and some believe he’s just going to wait until Ryan Garcia’s suspension is up so he can persuade him to fight him in a rematch and get as much money as possible before calling it a day.

It would be risky for Haney to continue to fight during Ryan’s suspension because he would need to fight a fairly big name to get the money he would be happy with. That’s the whole problem. If Haney faces someone like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, Isaac Cruz, Teofimo Lopez, or Shakur Stevenson, he would likely lose, and that would destroy his chances of a fight with