Devin Haney is facing heavy criticism after a lackluster showing against Jose Ramirez on May 2 in Times Square, New York. The former undisputed lightweight champion adopted a defense-first strategy, spending most of the bout on the back foot and rarely engaging, opting instead to land sporadic punches from a distance. His cautious approach drew the ire of fans and pundits alike—and even prompted promoter Eddie Hearn to deliver a blunt reality check to ‘The Dream.’

The fight was so uneventful that it made history for all the wrong reasons. According to CompuBox, it ranked as the fourth-lowest combined punch output in the company’s 40-year tracking history for a 12-round fight. The two fighters threw a combined total of just 503 punches, with Haney connecting on 70 of 224 and Ramirez landing only 40 of 279. Regardless, the question is—what does Hearn, who has promoted Haney’s fights before, have to say?

While appearing in an interview with Fight Hub TV recently, Hearn claimed, “It wasn’t necessarily that Devin was fighting off the back foot. He was running for the first 4, 5, 6 rounds of that fight.” Hearn felt that when Devin Haney decided to exchange during the fight, “he would hurt Ramirez,” but quickly fall back on his strategy to cautiously back away. Hearn tried to justify the 26-year-old’s action by suggesting that the fight had a lot riding on it.

“But at the same time, he had a lot to overcome. So we’re very harsh in that respect,” Hearn said. Still, he acknowledged that performance like that is bound to attract negativity from fans and experts. He agreed that Jose Ramirez should have cut off the ring better to catch Haney and stop him from fleeing, but “it is very difficult when people are coming to fight so negatively.”

To make things worse for Haney, Ryan Garcia lost his fight against Rolando Romero on the same card, which has left their planned October rematch in limbo, with speculations that the fight might not even happen. Bill Haney, Devin Haney’s father, has spoken about facing other opponents, suggesting the Garcia fight might be truly out of reach. 

Meanwhile, Haney’s coach has also commented on Haney’s performance earlier this month. 

Shane Mosley lashes out at Devin Haney for his performance against Jose Ramirez

After Haney’s performance, Shane Mosley, who was one of the trainers behind Haney for the May 2nd bout in Times Square, didn’t hold back his criticism. Mosley revealed that Haney prioritized business over the sport, stating, “Devin Haney took a different mentality, I think, more of his father’s mentality in the ring,” Mosley told FightHype.

“He won the fight, got his victory. But sometimes a victory can be a loss if you do it the wrong way.” The retired world champion indicated that Haney may have been “protecting the bag for the next fight,” something Mosley doesn’t seem to agree with. “That’s just not how I roll,” he added. This echoes the larger sentiment among fans who preferred Haney to come out swinging to redeem himself after the beating he took from Garcia last year.

Having said that, it appears the entirety of the boxing community is against Devin Haney and how he performed against Jose Ramirez. Now, he has a bigger mission at hand, which is to convince people that he is still worth headlining a pay-per-view bout, which will be difficult to do. Do you agree? What should Haney do next?