Boxing’s youngest male unified champion targets ‘diva’ Devin Haney

Unified world champion Xander Zayas has responded to Devin Haney and his father, Bill, who said during an interview last week that the Puerto Rican is merely “food to us.”

Zayas unified the super-welterweight division last month, claiming a split decision victory against Abass Baraou to come away with the WBO and WBA titles.

Immediately after his career-best victory, the 23-year-old called out Josh Kelly who, earlier that evening, had dethroned Bakhram Murtazaliev to become the IBF world champion at 154lbs.

Since then, both fighters have expressed an interest in their potential unification match, though Kelly has not entirely welcomed Zayas’ offer of a clash in Puerto Rico or New York.

Instead, ‘Pretty Boy’ is eager to headline a card at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light this summer, but would likely agree to fight overseas if the money makes sense.

As for Zayas, who is fiercely pursuing a showdown with Kelly, a possible opportunity to defend his titles against Haney has suddenly presented him with an alternative option.

The 27-year-old comes off a dominant points victory over Brian Norman Jr in November, when he claimed his WBO welterweight title, but is now flirting with the idea of becoming a four-division world champion.

And after Bill Haney labelled Zayas as “food” in an interview with thaboxingvoice, the unified super-welterweight champion simply had no choice but to respond. Haney caught win of a video with the translation, which refers to Haney’s lawsuit against Ryan Garcia in 2024, ‘The Dream’ threw down his gauntlet on X.

Zayas, meanwhile, was quick to fire back.

“Relax ‘Diva’ my focus is getting the third belt from Kelly but we already told your DADDY if that doesn’t happen we will be happy to put the 1 [loss] back on your record.”

Haney’s majority decision defeat, which Zayas refers to, came against Garcia in 2024, but was later overturned to a no-contest after ‘King Ry’ tested positive for ostarine.