Top Rank, which promotes Davis, scored a winning bid of $8.55 million, easily surpassing Lopez's Takeover Promotions' offer of $2.35 million.

Davis (15-0, 10 KOs), however, declined to pursue the matchup Friday, which would have paid him $2.14 million for a legacy-defining fight against a fellow 27-year-old and top-tier talent in Haney (33-0, 15 KOs).

Prior to the potential pitting reaching a purse bid, Davis had declined a $3 million offer from Top Rank, The Ring's Mike Coppinger reported, adding that he was looking for a $5 million net purse (after management fees) to fight Haney despite never earning more than $1 million for a fight in his career.

On Saturday, Lopez met with the media to talk about the hot topic while attending William Zepeda's unanimous decision win against Lamont Roach for the vacant WBC lightweight title at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.

"I'm not Keyshawn Davis. I'm not his legal team. Whatever rightful reason they had – maybe it was because he wanted more money," Lopez said. "But I think that you have to prove that you earned that money, that type of money."

Lopez later elaborated on "The Businessman's" decision to turn down the fight.

"That was weird. That was insane to me. This doesn't look good on him," Lopez told FightHype. "Maybe they have another deal somewhere else. Maybe that's why. I think he was asking for too much money. You have to prove it though.

"There are so many ways that we can look at it, right? .... Once it gets to a purse bid, if you pull out, that is a duck move. You're basically letting whoever wants to bid on it to take the fight, so you're basically saying 'yes,' and then that happens."

As for Lopez, he's not ducking or dodging any smoke.

After dropping a unanimous decision against Shakur Stevenson in January, Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) returns August 22 to make his welterweight debut against WBA titleholder Rolando Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to headline a DAZN and Prime Video PPV event.