After a series of abuse allegations, Rolando Romero is set to be pulled from his fight with Gervonta 'Tank' Davis on December 5th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and now the WBC lighweight champion Devin Haney has expressed his desire to be Romero's replacement.
Speaking to Boxing Social, Hearn suggested a deal between Haney and Tank could be made.
"I don’t know anything about the [Romero] situation but I spoke with Devin Haney and I said, ‘are you happy to put your name in the mix?’ And he said, ‘yeah,’ because at the moment ‘no-go [Joseph] Diaz has not signed his contract after being offered more to fight Devin Haney than he was getting to fight Ryan Garcia, so we’ll have to see what happens," Hearn said.
Haney and Tank also have something in common, they both have boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. as a mentor — though for the former it's more of an informal bond compared to the more established professional link between Davis and the 50-0 great.
However, Hearn believes the Diaz fight will nonetheless get signed, with both men training for a December 4th date in Las Vegas.
“We need to make statement fights in the U.S market for Devin Haney, and our preference is JoJo Diaz. It’s five weeks tonight,” Hearn explained.
“They’re all training for that date, even JoJo. He was supposed to be fighting on November 27th [against Ryan Garcia], so he’s ready. But at some point, we need to go on sale."
Watch highlights of Devin Haney vs. Jorge Linares below.