SAN FRANCISCO – Amid all the accusations, cursing and over-the-top promotional bluster during their press conference Thursday, Regis Prograis pointed out that this isn’t really a hometown fight for Devin Haney.

The former undisputed lightweight champion comes from Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas, from Prograis’ perspective. That’s where Haney moved with his father/trainer, Bill Haney, when he was 7 years old.

Devin Haney was born in San Francisco, where he’ll oppose Prograis on Saturday night at Chase Center, and lived in Oakland before they moved to Henderson to pursue their boxing dreams.

Wherever you think Haney is from, it’s indisputable that this undefeated fighter has traveled a road back to San Francisco that his contemporaries have been unwilling to take. While rivals Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia, Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson remain committed exclusively to their promoters and accompanying platforms, Haney has uniquely given himself the flexibility to build his brand and legacy the way he and his father see fit by working with multiple promoters and platforms.

This strategy served Haney extremely well and provided a blueprint worth following for fighters willing to take unconventional risks.

“I’m showing that I’m a true champion,” Devin Haney told BoxingScene.com. “Everybody that I call out and they actually wanna fight, I fight them. And it’s been like that for a while now. You know, I’ve been calling out top guys since I was 19, 20 years old. Now I’m in the position to where I could call the shots and now these big fights are happening. I’m a throwback fighter. I’m willing to fight the best fighters in the world – whoever, whenever.”

Haney needed to move up after his last fight to the 140-pound division because the physical torture caused by squeezing his 5-foot-9 frame down to 135 pounds just wasn’t wise or worthwhile anymore. He did not need, however, to challenge a dangerous knockout artist like Prograis in Haney’s first fight in his new weight class.

It was a bold, admirable move, yet nothing new for an emerging star who has embraced challenges and navigated the brutal business of boxing in a very unconventional, effective fashion over the past two years. Haney certainly could’ve played it safer when his contract with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and DAZN expired following his 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat of Joseph Diaz Jr. in December 2021 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The ambitious Haney, who turned pro in Mexico at the age of 17, instead accepted the take-it-or-leave-it co-promotional pact offered by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. and DiBella Entertainment.

That agreement paid him handsomely, though less than he and his father believed he was worth. It also required him to travel to Australia not once, but twice, to fight Sydney’s George Kambosos Jr. for an opportunity to become boxing’s first fully unified lightweight champion of the four-belt era.

Haney beat Kambosos convincingly in back-to-back 12-rounders over a four-month span in 2022. Critics knock Kambosos, especially since his controversial victory over Maxi Hughes on July 22, but Haney handled him in a way Lopez could not when Kambosos upset Lopez by split decision in November 2021 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

The 25-year-old Haney’s style isn’t always aesthetically appealing, but it is effective. It has enabled Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) to crack every credible pound-for-pound list and made him the youngest undisputed champion since four sanctioning organizations gained recognition (23).

Rather than taking a tune-up once he beat Kambosos twice, Haney defended his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts against one of the best, most accomplished fighters of this generation, Vasiliy Lomachenko.

Their 12-round fight was very closely contested and seemingly could’ve gone either way May 20 at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Haney won on the scorecards of Tim Cheatham (115-113), Dave Moretti (116-112) and David Sutherland (115-113).

The outcome warranted an immediate rematch, which Haney considered before he decided to return, at least temporarily, to work with Matchroom and DAZN. Well aware that a significant faction of the boxing public wanted a rematch with Lomachenko, Haney made sure that his first fight in his new division came against a powerful southpaw and two-time champion who has lost only a 12-round majority decision to Josh Taylor, who later became the fully unified 140-pound champion.

Oddsmakers have nevertheless installed Haney as a 4-1 favorite, even though Prograis is the harder puncher and much more accustomed to the 140-pound division. It is one ambitious move too many, according to Prograis.

“Imma f--- this boy up,” Prograis demonstratively stated during the press conference Thursday. “Imma f--- him up. I’m f------ him up. That’s it. I’m f------ him up.”

An incredulous Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) dismissed predictions by Bill and Devin Haney that Haney, not the supposedly stronger Prograis, would win by knockout. The defending champion attributed that tough talk to nerves unsettling Haney now that this daunting night has almost arrived.

Bill Haney acknowledged the problems Prograis presents, but both he and his son have conviction about choosing this imposing opponent.

“You’re not gonna get on the Mount Rushmore of boxing by not doing things like that,” Bill Haney told a group of reporters after the press conference Thursday. “Devin has been consistent about that’s what his place is. That’s where he looks to be, is to be a legend in the sport and to be remembered forever. So, you know, you have to do tough things like that.”

Time and again, if you’re Devin Haney.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.