It was plainly obvious to anyone who follows boxing even remotely closely long before Saturday that Devin Haney has oodles of talent. Since he was 17, he's shown the gifts that all of the all-time greats have. He's speedy and quick. He's a genius in the ring, his mind keeping him two or three steps ahead of his opponent. He's an accurate puncher and a smart, skilled defensive fighter.
There were plenty of good things to say about Haney, the kid from the Bay Area who turned pro at 17 in Mexico, before Saturday. He moved to Las Vegas as a teen-ager to seek greatness and has done his best since to get the biggest fights possible.
On Saturday at the Chase Center in San Francisco, though, he took it to another level that few fighters ever reach. He gave a mind-bogglingly good performance, outclassing Regis Prograis and lifting the WBC super lightweight title from "The Rougarou" by sweeping all 12 rounds on all three judges' scorecards. Thanks to a third-round knockdown, Haney won 120-107 on all cards, and the fights was almost never in doubt.
It's been a while since Prograis looked really good, but he entered the fight 29-1 with 24 knockouts and was widely regarded as a live underdog despite the 4-1 odds against him.
Haney beat him mercilessly, and the disappointing thing is that Prograis' corner didn't stop the fight. That was the kind of beating that a lot of times leads to a disastrous outcome: Getting hit in the head repeatedly, minute after minute, round after round, is never good. And that's what happened to Prograis Saturday.
He was never in the fight and was hopelessly out of it by the sixth. The corner would have been wise to stop it after eight, nine or 10, and give their guy a break in a bout in which even they knew he didn't have a chance to win.
Fortunately, Prograis seemed fine, and was among the legions who was impressed by Haney.
"He's just better than what I thought he was," said Prograis, one of the most honest and direct fighters in the business.
Prograis vowed to hurt Haney at Thursday's final news conference, but he barely landed a punch of consequence. Afterward, he knew he'd been dissected by a maestro.
"I knew he was fast, but he's quicker than I thought he was," Prograis said. "I'm not going to lie. I couldn't seem to get to him. That's all. I just couldn't get to him. He's quick."
Prograis mocked Haney before the fight the way many aging sluggers do. He said he was going to walk Haney down and knock him out, and then he predicted that Haney would run. Haney, though, did no such thing. He stood in the pocket and went toe-to-toe with Prograis. He took away Prograis' vaunted left hand and he limited Prograis to 36 landed punches over 12 rounds and held him to a 9.9 percent connect percentage according to CompuBox.
Prograis landed only two punches in every round from the fourth through the 11th, inclusive, and when he needed to rally in the 12th to score a dramatic KO, he landed four punches.
"My Dad [trainer Bill Haney] came up with a tremendous game plan, along with my team," Devin Haney said. "We did what we said we were going to do and executed that game plan."
That was indicative of what high-level championship boxing is all about. He was stinging Prograis with punches throughout and dropped him with a straight right in the third. Prograis admitted he felt Haney was a soft puncher, and said it turned out he was wrong. Haney, he said, hits hard.
It was a brilliant performance by Haney in all aspects. Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom mentioned a number of potential opponents, including Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis and Teofimo Lopez. He didn't mention Subriel Matias, but Matias would also be a good next opponent for Haney.
Whoever he fights next -- I'd prefer him versus Lopez, but Garcia seems like the favorite to get the next shot -- is going to have to significantly raise his game.
Haney was the undisputed lightweight champion, but was struggling to make the weight. He looked like a different man with the extra five pounds that super lightweight allowed.
"We know how good Devin Haney is, [but the question before the fight was], 'Could he transfer that to 140?' " Hearn said. "The answer is absolutely. He looked bigger, he looked stronger, he looked better and he looked stronger. It was a one-sided fight against a very good world champion. You know, it was over two decades ago that Floyd Mayweather was here in 2001. It was the last big fight in San Francisco. You've got someone here I believe with that same kind of ability. I think this is a special, special talent."
He's had that talent for a while, but it's been a while since he put it together like he did on Saturday. He briefly talked about moving to welterweight, and that can't be dismissed, though there are so many big-money fights for him at 140 that it makes little sense to leave for welterweight shortly. Undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford is contractually committed to a rematch with Errol Spence, and that's not yet been scheduled.
A Haney-Garcia fight would be huge, as would Haney-Lopez or Haney-Davis. Haney's still only 25 and he has plenty of time to grow into a welterweight.
Hearn, though, is right. He was reminiscent Saturday of a young Mayweather.
It's difficult to give a modern boxer any higher praise then that.