“THAT’S the worst thing in the world,” says Bill Haney of being denied permission to travel to Australia with his son Devin for the fight with George Kambosos Jnr that had the potential to make their careers.
Refused a visa because of a conviction in 1992 – before Devin had been born – when aged 22 he was imprisoned for 40 months for possession and conspiracy to distribute two kilograms of cocaine, his persistence meant that an appeal led to him unexpectedly and dramatically being given a visa to travel the day before last June’s fight, and that as his trainer and manager he would work his son’s corner the night history was made.
The significance of the extent to which his past had continued to haunt him, however – and for all that he knows may have cost victory – regardless remains at the forefront of his mind. “That’s why I want every father and son to be conscious of your past following you,” he continues, to Boxing News. “No matter what you’re doing today, you’ll suffer later on. Even if you are the smoothest, flyest, sharpest, baddest mother– moving. It can come back and haunt you and your kids, and that’s what that did.
“A lot of the time when you’re young, you’re doing it just to be doing it. [But] when Devin got on the airplane I was more relieved that he was going to handle business without me, because we had reached a point
