ShoBox returns to the air Friday night for another of its signature prospect oriented quadruple headers. This is a notable one too as quietly hyped Floyd Mayweather Sr trained nineteen year old Devin Haney finally steps into the public eye in the main event in a solid step up against former ShoBox big winner Mason Menard.
19 year old Devin Haney (18-0, 12 KOs) has been quietly talked about as a future potential star in boxing insider circles ever since he joined the pay ranks, but his route to our televisions tomorrow night has been a strange one. First, he turned pro on his sixteenth birthday in Mexico. It is pretty hard to get licensed to fight professionally at seventeen stateside, so he and his team didn’t bother to try. He took his first four fights south of the border before coming back home to America to fight. Even now he still bounces back and forth though with more of his victories still having come on Mexican soil than American.
Haney has also not signed with a major promoter, though he has picked up a major name of a trainer in Floyd Mayweather Sr. Instead he has traveled around taking fights on all sorts of cards outside of the public eye. Without a promoter, basically no career momentum has been built for Haney, but this strikes me as rather intentional. Having turned professional on his seventeenth birthday means Haney never participated in the full amateur system, only as a junior amateur. He has basically been wandering around and having his amateur career.
He and his team are apparently ready to end that approach though with this ShoBox main event against Mason Menard (33-2, 24 KOs). Menard made his name right on ShoBox with a 2016 monster knockout over the much more physically imposing looking Dominican Eudy Bernardo, but he got beat up and knocked out later that year by now titleholder Ray Beltran on HBO. Two things are definitely true here when comparing Menard to Haney. For one, he is not nearly as talented. Second, despite that, he represents a monster step up in one fight from the club fighters Haney has been fighting. It is such a big step up that it gives me pause. Physically, Haney should win this. He is the heir apparent. Yet, he’s also never competed on anything comparable to this level. If he were with a major promoter like Top Rank, PBC, or Matchroom, they wouldn’t give him a one fight step up like this and for good reason. It is a lot to ask. I look forward to seeing him answer.
Series alumni Joshua Greer Jr (16-1-1, 8 KOs) and Glenn Dezurn (9-1-1, 6 KOs) return at super bantamweight in the co-feature. Both men are exciting fighters stylistically so this will likely be a good one. If Greer sounds familiar but you just can’t place him, he is the one who brings the pillow for his opponent to the ring. It is a strange move for a man who only just moved his KO percentage to fifty, but it is what he does. Also at super bantamweight, busted prospect Adam Lopez (16-2-2, 8 KOs) will make his record seventh series appearance to test Ukrainian newcomer Arnold Khegai (11-0-1, 8 KOs) while unbeaten but unknown light heavyweights Alvin Varmall Jr (15-0-1, 12 KOs) and Charles Foster (15-0, 8 KOs) will also be introduced to us in the likely opener.
This is a real solid ShoBox that you should tune into. The show starts at 10 PM Eastern tomorrow night on Showtime.
