Hours after the Shakur Stevenson vs. Devin Haney talks died on X again, Fannon of the Fannon International Boxing Channel posted the autopsy — and he hands the blame to both camps at once. There is no good guy in this one, he says. The final offer got turned down, the finger-pointing started on schedule, and the whole “negotiation” was exposed for what he argues it always was: a PR stunt.
The public story is the one Rnd5Media already walked through today. Stevenson says that after agreeing to 144 and then 145 pounds, Haney’s lawyer emailed at the 11th hour to say Devin would only fight at 147 — a “big waste of everybody’s time.” Haney fired back that he agreed to 145, Stevenson “went missing for days,” and then tried to attach a rehydration clause. Fannon’s verdict on both versions: “It was never a serious negotiation.”
Video credit: Fannon International Boxing Channel (@fannonboxing).
A Contest to Label the Other Man a Duck
Fannon’s case starts with Bill Haney. In Bill’s interview with Lance Pugmire of BoxingScene, the first thing out of the father’s mouth, per Fannon, was that if Devin beat Shakur — or Shakur walked away — Devin should be crowned number one pound-for-pound. Walking away was built into the sales pitch from the start. The Haney camp, Fannon argues, went in looking for an outcome they could market either way: a win, or a duck to point at.
Then he pulls the receipt from Haney’s own history. When Devin had the Yuriorkis Gamboa fight lined up — a fight nobody was excited about — he jumped into the middle of the Gary Russell Jr. and Terence Crawford conversation, started a loud callout and a paper negotiation with Russell, and when it predictably produced nothing, shouted that Gary ducked him. Then he fought Gamboa anyway — the man he was always going to fight. Same play, Fannon says, run more than once: borrow a bigger name, stage a negotiation, exit with a duck label and free heat for a fight nobody asked for.
Follow the Money — There Isn’t Any
Here is where the breakdown goes further than the timeline. Fannon doesn’t believe either side ever intended to sign, and he doesn’t believe the money for this fight exists this year — and he says both camps know it. Haney has a contractual relationship with Turki Alalshikh. Stevenson is with Zuffa, whose shows are also tied to Saudi money. Two fighters, one pot — and that pot, Fannon argues, is in question right now because of the war in Iran and what Mohammed bin Salman has said about spending outside Saudi Arabia. No money, no fight. So instead of a fight, in Fannon’s words, the fans got “Twitter talk.”
Shakur does not escape the breakdown either, and this is where it lines up with what Rnd5Media has been saying about the clause. Fannon argues Stevenson never truly intended to fight Haney at 140 for his own title — which is why the demands kept landing at 144 and 145 with a rehydration clause attached — conditions he had every reason to believe Haney would refuse. This is the same fighter who used to preach that skills pay the bills and size doesn’t beat skill — back when he was the bigger man at 130. Against Haney, suddenly size is the whole conversation. Fannon calls the entire production a “dog and pony show” and warns fans to learn the pattern, because both men will run it again the next time one of them needs his name in the headlines.
What Happens Next
Nothing about this week changes the board. Haney still holds the WBO welterweight title at 147, with Keyshawn Davis — Stevenson’s close friend — sitting in his mandatory picture. Stevenson still has Zuffa, Dana White and a 140-pound title he can defend without answering the size question. Where Fannon lands is darker than a blame call: if the money really isn’t there this year, expect more staged standoffs and duck labels — entertainment dressed as negotiations. Rnd5Media’s read of the sequence still stands: the rehydration clause is what killed the 145 deal that was actually on the table. But after this breakdown, it’s fair to ask whether either camp ever planned to pick the deal up off that table in the first place.
