Promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed he would be interested in matching his boxer Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney 26-0 (15) with rising star Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero 14-0 (12) in the future but his first priority is to make a fight with Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz 31-1-1 (15).
The outspoken Romero, 25, has won a legion of fans with his exciting style. His last bout was a seventh-round knockout of Swedish southpaw Anthony Yigit 24-2-1 (8) in San Antonio, Texas last month.
Hearn says he could see the fight against Haney at some stage in the future.
“Yeah, I think so. Rolly has kind of come out of nowhere,” the Matchroom Boxing boss said to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“He’s been on the scene of the hardcore boxing channels for a while and obviously his last fight was on a bigger stage and a bigger platform.
“I think it’s a fight that would have a lot of juice in it. Therefore it’s a fight that would make sense, but I must say the target remains Jo Jo Diaz against Haney for November.
“That’s the fight we want to make because that’s a real fight and that’s a good fight. No disrespect to Rolly but I just don’t think that’s a difficult fight for Devin Haney. I really don’t.
“Jo Jo Diaz is a multi-weight world champion and is coming off a win over [Javier] Fortuna. I think that’s a proper fight for the division.
“Devin wants those big fights and if it’s not a [Teofimo] Lopez, a Ryan Garcia, or a Tank [Davis], Jo Jo Diaz is a great option. So that’s where our priorities remain at the moment.”
Southpaw Diaz looked in career-best form when he outpointed fellow lefty Javier Fortuna 36-3-1 (25) in his move up to lightweight in Los Angeles last month.
Haney is coming off a decision win over former world champion Jorge Linares 47-6 (29) in Las Vegas in May.
“We’re speaking to Golden Boy and he’s MTK managed. We’re going through the numbers as early as this week to try and get that made,” Hearn said.
“There’s a lot to say about Jo Jo Diaz saying ‘I prefer Ryan Garcia to fight.’ I don’t know that Ryan will fight this year.
“I saw a post yesterday saying, ‘2022 is going to be my year, big fights only.’ Does that mean you’re still running out this year or are you just going to wait? I don’t know.
“These months are coming up quick. It’s September next week. It’s coming around real quick this year. When you start thinking about October, we’re thinking about possible dates in September.
“Even our October shows we’re announcing probably next week. That’s not far away. It’s seven, eight weeks away. When you start talking about a December fight. People are thinking, ‘December?’
“That’s not long away. You’ve got AJ [Anthony Joshua] in one month today. That’s September 25th. We’re talking [Roman] ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez vs [Juan Francisco] Estrada on October 16th. Like I said, everything is coming around real fast.”
