Devin Haney and Regis Prograis are one signature away from making their fight official, but a dispute on the date has stalled things.
Haney decided against defending his undisputed lightweight titles next in search of more glory one division up, and is all set to meet the WBC’s 140lbs champion, Prograis.
Having already informed the sanctioning body of his intentions, the terms are near completion and an announcement seemed to be imminent.
That was until Prograis, who has made one successful defence of his belt, took to Twitter to air out some grievances in the negotiation.
“So you know me and Haney supposed to fight, right? We agreed on the date. We agreed on everything, and now they tryna move the date and stuff like that. Haneys, I know y’all are smart, but y’all some smart b***hes at the same time.”
“Y’all trying to pull some slick s**t but we ain’t going for that. We already agreed to the date. I signed the contract, what more y’all want? … Y’all scared of me, y’all don’t want me to get ready.”
“If you don’t wanna fight, go fight somebody else, go do what you want, go stay at 135, do whatever you got to do. But n***a the date is the date and I’m staying on that.”
I signed the contract 2 weeks ago, agreed to their terms, and they still trying to change shit. I smell pussy @Realdevinhaneypic.twitter.com/NAVC7QUXna
— Rougarou (@RPrograis) August 9, 2023
Haney responded with a reason for the date change, revealing that the proposed fight night in the original contract was on October 28 – the same night Tyson Fury takes a sidestep out of boxing to face MMA star, Francis Ngannou.
“This dumb n***a wanna fight the same day as Tyson Fury but swear he know so much bout the “business” of boxing.”
Fury’s event with Ngannou is set for Saudi Arabia, so would take place during the day in the US.
Eddie Hearn later said that negotiations were positive but that Haney was ‘not happy’ with Prograis’ video. The promoter believes an agreement can be reached by next week, closely followed by an official announcement.
He has not specified a location, but listed many US states that could play host.