Boxing trainer Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards takes some time to talk to Fight Hype to give his reaction to Devin Haney’s uneventful win over Jose Ramirez which drew him much criticism. So when asked about Haney’s performance against Ramirez and whether or not the onus is on him to entertain the fans, Breadman shared these thoughts.
“I feel like the fans are paying to see you so you have to do something to entertain them, but you don’t have to sacrifice a win to entertain them because a guy like — let’s say Devin fights like Joe Frazier, if he starts fighting like Joe Frazier and starts losing you know what people are going to say? They are going to say that he don’t have no IQ, fighting stupid,” Breadman said.
“So he has to fight within a style that’s best for him to win and then if he can put a little bit of entertainment on that style, then he can…He has to be smart and use his IQ and then use his IQ to fight the style that’s best with what God gave him. Everybody’s not a big puncher. You have to fight the style that benefits you the most and then entertain after that.
“I do think it’s professional boxing and you have to entertain but you can’t do it at the cost of your victory, so it’s a happy medium. Could Devin have let his hands go a little bit more? Probably. But I give Devin a lot of grace, that was his first fight back. And getting clipped by big shots, people can act like ‘oh, it’s okay, he’s just a fighter’ — it takes time to get over that. Everybody is not going to just get over that in one fight.
“Sometimes it takes time, sometimes fighters have a little PTSD, sometimes they need to get their feet wet a little bit…Guys like Terry Norris and Tommy Hearns, they’re like crazy guys where they can get clipped and come right back in the next fight and be fine. Everybody’s not like that. Marco Antonio Barrera is a great fighter, it took him a little time to come back from the Junior Jones fights in the 90s.
“I think we have to give Devin a little bit of time to get himself together, work himself back into a flow, find his little space where he’s boxing and entertaining…Devin has to be careful, he can’t over-slug and slug too much and get clipped again and then everybody’s going to laugh at him on that end.”
