DEVIN HANEY’s father and trainer has yet to be granted a visa for his son’s world title fight Down Under.
The 23-year-old will challenge George Kambosos Jr for the undisputed lightweight titles in Australia a fortnight on Saturday.
But The Dream’s trip to Oz has so far been a nightmare as dad Bill was stopped from boarding their flight to the land Down Under.
During an appearance on Trill Boxing Talk, Bill said: “I’m still at home in Vegas. I wasn’t able to board the flight to go over [to Australia],”
“They said my visa hasn’t been approved. It hasn’t been denied. At this point in time, I wasn’t able to go through customs.”
The delay with Bill’s visa could be down to the felony drug conviction he received 30 years ago.
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He admitted: “I made some mistakes at 22, 23, where Devin is now and hopefully he don’t ever have to make those mistakes I’ve made.
“Those aren’t the paths he wants to go down. I have a felony on my record that goes back to 1992. A federal drug conviction that I served time on.
“I was open and honest to our partners at Top Rank. Lou DiBella with DiBella Entertainment (Kambosos’s promoter) knew about this as well.”
The elder Haney hasn’t written off his chances of being ringside for his son’s crack at undisputed glory.
He continued: “We were hoping to get the support from the Australian government pertaining to it.
“Hopefully that will happen in the next day or two, a couple of weeks before the fight that I will be able to go.”
A rematch clause is in place should Haney end Kambosos’ reign as unified 135lb king.
Bill said: “It’s a one-way rematch clause and they want it in Australia. Devin doesn’t have a rematch in the contract.
“With this, me not being able to go over, it changes the dynamic of what we agreed to. But we are men of our word.
“We have this fight right now. The most important thing is to get through this fight right now, that we have in front of us. Get through that with him and then speak to the government.
“Hopefully in the next couple of days or even during the rematch, I will be allowed to be let over.
“They have a character committee or something like that, the Australian government that they overlook people on the fence, that maybe they can accept in.
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“They have a character committee meeting on it. I’m as optimistic about the fight happening when they said it wasn’t happening.
“I’m just as optimistic about being allowed over there. In all actuality, we have to prepare for me not being there.”
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