Malignaggi Questions Haney’s Decision To Fight Prograis And Duck Teofimo Lopez
Paulie Malignaggi has hit out at Devin Haney’s potential next fight against Regis Prograis.
The ‘Dream’ moved up from 135, with the intention of fighting Prograis for his WBC belt. Despite the latter signing his side of the agreement, Haney has yet to do so.
Naturally, there are question marks over whether Haney will go through with the fight. Meanwhile, he was also stripped of his WBC belt at 135, This made him avoid Shakur Stevenson since he was his mandatory.
Although Haney is a champion in recess at 135 for the WBC, the decision to come back down to lightweight is ultimately up to him. But when it came to Prograis, Malignaggi had a few choice words to say about Haney.
The Italian was critical of the star, despite his win over Vasiliy Lomachenko. Many feelt that the Ukrainian had won. And given that Prograis is 34 and at the latter end of his career like Loma, Malignaggi questioned his level of opposition.
Malignaggi On Prograis
“I’d like to see Haney & Teofimo. I don’t know if Haney wants to see Haney & Teofimo, but I’d like to see Haney & Teofimo, sure. I don’t know if we’re going to get that. We got possibly Haney & Prograis. Prograis is a world champion. If Haney can win that [WBC light welterweight] title, you can get the aging [34-year-old] world champion. He’s still a good fighter,” Malignaggi
A fight with Lopez would be the biggest in the division. The former is a two-weight and two-time lineal champion, who recently secured the WBO junior welterweight belt with a win over Josh Taylor.
Such a fight would draw in huge numbers since Lopez has talked about wanting to fight for nine-figure paydays. And since Teo is known for making controversial comments, there would be plenty in the build up.
And yet, Haney did controversially claim that Prograis was the best fighter at 140, better than Lopez in the process. But those sentiments were not shared by Malignaggi.
Malignaggi On Haney
“I don’t think they [Team Haney] believe that [Prograis being better than Teofimo] because if they did believe that, their trajectory, the way they’ve moved their career, they would actually fight the easier opponent with the big name instead of fighting the tougher opponent with a big name. So for that reason, the reason they’re fighting Regis,” Malignaggi
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