Bill Haney Rejects Bob Arum’s Claims That Haney-Prograis Flopped On PPV
In today’s boxing news, Bill Haney has hit back at Bob Arum after the promoter played into the narrative that Devin Haney’s fight with Regis Progress did poorly on PPV.
Reports indicated that the fight did 50,000 PPV buys, which was considerably low given the pre-fight projections that it would do higher.
Haney is now a two-weight world champion following the win over Prograis to get the WBC belt, but those numbers continue to show a massive gulf in class with Gervonta Davis. Tank’s last fight with Ryan Garcia did over 1.2 million PPV buys. It also produced the highest boxing gate in 2023, which exceeded $20 million.
Although Haney sold out the Chase Center, it fell short of Davis’ numbers. Since Haney is aiming to make the Davis fight, that would put him as the B-side in any negotiations. Leonard Ellerbe backed up those numbers, resulting in an exchange with Bill. The CEO of Mayweather Promotions shut down Bill by letting him know that he has the record of putting on the most significant PPV events, as shown with the Floyd Mayweather fights.
Arum On Haney
Haney hit back at Ellerbe but saw Arum double down on those claims. The Top Rank promoter gave numerous reasons for why the numbers were low. But to his credit, he dismissed the notion that Haney could not sell since extenuating factors were involved.
“Very, very disappointing. But again, you put a fight on first of all in December, PPV. Now what are people concerned about in December? Saving up their money so they can spend it on Christmas presents. And so the fact it did so poorly is not really a reflection on Haney’s marketability, it’s just a fight that took place at the wrong time against fights that were free to air on other platforms like ESPN. We had a terrific, terrific featherweight championship match that was a huge upset against it. So the fact it didn’t do well doesn’t mean that Devin Haney’s not a PPV draw. But it didn’t do well,” Arum said
Haney On Arum
Despite that, Bill considered those comments negative towards his son. He highlighted how the arena was sold out, showing high gate numbers. But since the PPV numbers have yet to be released officially, it is too early to tell how well the fight did with the boxing public at home. But one thing for sure is that Bill was not ready to stand for what he believed was an incorrect narrative.
“Now, Bob Arum, Hall of Fame promoter, the legendary man himself, just jumped out the window of the airplane at 30,000 feet to land on his head with some fake news that the people can’t use. Bob is not privy to any numbers. So to describe our [Haney – Prograis] fight as a disappointment is disheartening from old Bob. Listen, it was a sold-out [Chase Center] arena to a great group of hardcore and casual fans,” Bill Haney stated
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