Haney’s Footwork Drills: Ignoring the Real Threat

Devin Haney showed off his awesome footwork on social media, gearing up for his return on March 25 at BLK Prime. Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) posted a video of him working out on a grass field, making football moves with his feet.

The left hook problem

How the footwork will help the 26-year-old Haney in a fight is the real question. His problem was taking hits to Ryan Garcia’s head, not using football agility drills. Devin needs to look at a different workout to block the left hook.

Former two-division world champion Haney’s rumored opponents for his March 25th are these guys:

• Adrien Broner
• Tevin Farmer

Both are in their early thirties and haven’t beaten anyone of note in many years. All the footwork Haney showed in his video workout is a loss for him if he’s going to fight Broner (35-5-1, 24 KOs) or Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs).

A young AB from 2010-2012 would be torture for Devin, but he hasn’t looked the same since he was beaten in a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Marcos Maidana on December 14, 2013. That loss took some thing in Broner.

Former four-division world champion Broner is coming off a 10-round unanimous decision loss to Blair Cobbs last year on June 7. Cobbs knocks him out in the second round and dominates the rest of the way.

Former IBF super featherweight champion Farmer has lost his last two fights to William Zepeda and Raymond Muratalla. Since Farmer hasn’t beaten a world-class fighter since his win over Guillaume Frenois in 2019, it doesn’t make sense for Haney to use him as his tune-up opponent.

What Haney needs is a crash course on how to block the left hook because that’s the weapon that Ryan Garcia and Jorge Linares used to hurt him in their fights. Fighting Farmer won’t help Haney, and same with Broner. These guys are too old and past it to be useful to Devin.