Arum Talks Haney’s Next Fight & Beterbiev Vs. Bivol

Bob Arum has opened up on the future of Devin Haney and Artur Beterbiev. 

Haney’s deal with Top Rank has expired following his win over Vasiliy Lomachenko. While that may have been the case, Arum is keen on offering Haney three potential opponents for his next fight.

Shakur Stevenson, Lomachenko or the winner of Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez are all possible since they are under Top Rank’s banner. 

And given that there is uncertainty over Haney’s future at 135 lbs, it would have to be a big fight at lightweight or super lightweight to get his attention. 

“I’ve come up with three in my imagination. One is the winner of Taylor and Teofimo at 140 if he wants to go up weight. Secondly, there is a fight with Shakur [Stevenson]. That would be massive because everybody would want to see that fight, and the third is the rematch.

“So hopefully, if Bill [Haney] comes to New York for the Teofimo fight, I’ll sit with him. He’s a very intelligent guy, and we’ll discuss all the options that we have at Top Rank, and then he has to weigh it against what any other promoter would offer to determine what he wants to do next, but we’ve enjoyed promoting Devin,” Arum 

Moving away from Haney, Arum has ruled out Beterbiev facing Dmitry Bivol next. This is despite the fact that the undisputed fight at light-heavyweight is the biggest fight out there.

And with Bivol having not reached an agreement with Canelo Alvarez for a rematch, all roads appear to be favoring a Beterbiev-Bivol bout.

However, the current Russian invasion of Ukraine has complicated matters. Arum has made it clear that he has no intention of making the fight as long as the Ukrainian invasion is ongoing.

Not only that, but the WBC has imposed a ban on Russian fighters. This applies to Bivol even though he was born in Kazakhstan. With that being said, this is what Arum had to say.

“I 100% support Ukraine and its fight against aggression, so I am not going to push for a Bivol vs. Beterbiev fight. You may say, ‘Well, isn’t Beterbiev Russian?’ and the answer is no, not really. He has had a residential visa in Canada for fourteen years, so I look at him as being Canadian,” Arum