J Prince doesn’t do many interviews, and he doesn’t waste words when he does one. Sitting down with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV in San Antonio, the manager of Shakur Stevenson addressed the question the whole sport has been asking: what happened between Shakur and Zuffa Boxing?
His answer started with a shrug the whole boxing world could hear. “Some marriages, some relationships don’t last long,” Prince said. “That’s just one that we weren’t able to cross the line with — even a first fight.”
Here is everything he said — and then, because fairness cuts both ways, here’s us checking it.
What Prince says happened with Haney
According to Prince, the money was never the problem. “I don’t think we had a contract [issue] — the purses and different things were pretty much agreed upon. It was just getting an opponent. I think a lot of time was spent on the wrong opponent, which was Devin Haney.”
Then came the accusation at the heart of his story: “I think Devin wanted to fight. I think [Bill Haney’s side] didn’t want to fight, and I think they figured out a way to sabotage the fight.”
Prince was specific about the rumored rehydration clause — there wasn’t one, he says. “That’s part of the lies that’s being told. No rehydration clause.” His version: a weight was agreed, and then, at the eleventh hour, the other side moved it: “Oh, we want to fight at 47 now… I don’t think they ever wanted the fight. I think Devin did. [Bill] figured out a way to stop it.”
He described a camp left holding the bag: Shakur was “training hard, preparing to whoop Devin’s ass,” while several other fighters named in their Zuffa deal should have been the focus. When the Haney fight fell apart, so did the reason to stay. Shakur asked for his release, and per Prince it was granted last weekend. “We don’t want to go down the road of focusing on this one guy, Devin, when there’s other things to do… we want to move forward with relationships and situations where people keep their word.”
The rest of his account
The Haney door isn’t closed. “All things are possible… I look forward to dealing with him at 47.” But not now: “If Devin is able to stay above the water, we’ll go to 47 and deal with that.”
On the weight debate: “It’s fight weights for a reason.” Shakur came up 126, 130, 135, 140, has had one fight at 140, and won’t be forced to 147 prematurely: “He’s not going to allow nobody to press him or force him into a fight at 47 prematurely. We got business at 135, 140 that he wants to deal with, and he will.”
On the reported out-clause (a clause letting them exit if Zuffa hadn’t delivered a fight by a set date): Prince declined to discuss it — “I don’t want to discuss the confidentiality of things with a contract. But as you see, we are free.”
They’re their own promoters now, talking to “quite a few people — and DAZN definitely is one of them.” Return target: “Beginning of next year, y’all should be getting some great fights.”
On Zuffa: no bitterness. “I wish Zuffa the best. I hope they figure some things out and tighten some things up. I think they can be a force to be reckoned with in the future.”
On O’Shaquie Foster (who fights Emanuel Navarrete tonight): Foster is a 130-pounder with “bigger fish to fry” elsewhere for now — but Prince is rooting for him against Navarrete “because he’s from where I’m from. We stick together.”
Now the fact-check: is he credible?
The $7 million Rayo claim — Prince’s denial holds up best here. Prince flatly denied the widely shared story that Rayo Valenzuela was offered for $7 million and turned down: “All of those are lies. That never was a conversation. That’s all on social media… never was discussed with me, and if it was discussed, I would be the first to know.” Fair is fair: the $7 million figure has lived entirely on social media and in commentary — no offer, contract, or purse bid has ever been produced publicly to back it. On the one claim that can be checked against documents, there are no documents against him. His denial stands unrefuted.
The Pacquiao fight — partly credible, partly hearsay. Prince confirmed a Manny Pacquiao fight “was on the radar and that one fell through — it’s some truth to that.” But on why, he hedged with his own words: “I was somewhat told that Netflix didn’t want that one.” That’s secondhand by his own admission — take the fight talks as real, the Netflix reason as unproven.
The Haney sabotage story — this is where it gets thin. The claim that Bill Haney never wanted the fight and manufactured a weight change to kill it is presented with total confidence and zero evidence — no messages, no term sheet, no third party. And it’s the mirror image of the version the other camp tells: as Rnd5Media has covered all week, Haney’s side says Shakur is the one who walked — Haney moved on to a unification with Liam Paro, and it was Shakur who was left staring at a WBO deadline, ordered toward Raymond Muratalla with his belt on the clock. Two camps, two sabotage stories, and only one of them can be telling the whole truth. Prince’s version may even be partly right — Devin wanting the fight while the business around him stalls is believable — but “believable” is not “proven,” and Prince offers nothing to close that gap.
The contract question — notice what he didn’t say. Asked directly about the reported escape clause, Prince hid behind confidentiality and pointed at the result: “We are free.” He didn’t deny the clause exists. A release “granted” to a fighter who never fought once under the deal, with purses supposedly already agreed, makes a lot more sense with an out-clause in the paperwork than without one.
The pattern problem. In the same week, the other headline fight attached to Prince’s camp — Keyshawn Davis vs Richardson Hitchins — also collapsed, with Hitchins saying Keyshawn priced himself out at $6 million. One collapse is a dispute. Two in a week, both ending with the other side blamed, starts to look like a negotiating style. That’s not proof Prince is lying about any single detail — it’s context a fair reader deserves.
The verdict
J Prince’s interview is measured, specific, and — on the checkable small points, like the Rayo $7 million story — more credible than the social media noise he was pushing back against. But the headline accusation, that Bill Haney sabotaged a fight his own son wanted, remains exactly what it was when he sat down: one powerful man’s word against another’s, with the paperwork nowhere in sight. We’ll believe the Haney fight was killed by sabotage the day somebody shows the receipts — from either side.
In the meantime, the facts nobody disputes are these: Shakur Stevenson is a free agent, his next fight is targeted for early next year, DAZN is at the table, and the Haney fight — the one everybody actually wants — is further away than ever.
Watch the full interview from Fight Hub TV below.
🎥 Video: Fight Hub TV
