Deontay Wilder has agreed promotional terms with Skill Challenge Promotions and Devin Haney is on the verge of joining him, ProBox TV can reveal.
The heavyweight, 37, remains in negotiations to fight Anthony Joshua in December, and will join Badou Jack, Ziyad Almaayouf and most recently Oleksandr Usyk among the mysterious-and-ambitious organisation’s stable.
His arrival is expected to be formally announced next week, by when Devin Haney, the undisputed lightweight champion, may also have agreed to join SCP. Wilder had long been with Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions; there had been speculation about his future at the start of the year when he spoke of being an “open agent; open fighter”.
Haney’s father, trainer and manager Bill was last week in New York to watch the WBO super lightweight title fight between Josh Taylor and Teofimo Lopez, given Haney remains in contention to fight the winner and is considering moving to 140lbs.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum confirmed to ProBox TV that the winner of Taylor-Lopez – Lopez earned a unanimous decision before insisting that aged 25 he is retiring – would likely be offered to Haney, whose promotional agreement with them expired at the conclusion of his victory last month over Vasyl Lomachenko. The rematch with Lomachenko is another fight Arum intends on proposing.
Matchroom, similarly, plan to make Haney, 24, an offer to fight Regis Prograis should, as expected, the WBC super lightweight champion defeat Danielito Zorrilla on Saturday in New Orleans.
Haney, who has previously struggled to make the 135lbs lightweight limit, is still deciding whether to remain at lightweight or to move to 140lbs. Those in boxing circles had expected him to re-sign with Top Rank, so for all of the independence he and his father have long demonstrated, as perhaps the world’s most valuable unattached fighter him moving to SCP would, like Wilder, represent a significant shock.
