By Chris Williams: Unbeaten lightweight contender Devin Haney (22-0, 14 KOs) saw enough from Vasiliy Lomachenko’s performance last Saturday night against Luke Campbell to make him believe that he’d beat him without question. Haney isn’t saying what makes him think that he can beat Lomachenko, but it’s easy to guess what he’s thinking. Loma looked VERY beatable against a fighter that was straight up and down with no bells or whistles.
(Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing)
The way that Lomachenko looked tonight, he needs to forget about moving up to 140 in the future. He’d been talking about wanting to do that possibly, but he shouldn’t unless it’s a hand-picked easy mark. Jose Ramirez is a pretty basic fighter at 140. There’s a chance Lomachenko could beat him, but he’s a flawed guy. If Lomachenko fought WBA champ Regis Prograis he would have a lot of problem.
Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) labored to a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision win over British fighter Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) to win the vacant WBC lightweight title at the O2 Arena in London, England.
The judges’ scores: 119-108, 119-108, and 118-109.
I could beat Loma point blank period!
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) September 1, 2019
Fans saying Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis would beat Lomachenko
After last night’s fight a lot of boxing fans were saying that Gervonta Davis would beat Lomachenko. Haney has to be included with Gervonta. He would have a real shot at beating Lomachenko if Top Rank were to give the green light to that fight taking place. But given the politics of boxing, it’s highly unlikely Haney or Gervonta will be fighting Lomachenko anytime soon.
Haney, 20, was the fighter that was supposed to face the 31-year-old Campbell for the vacant WBC belt. However, Lomachenko appealed to the WBC to be allowed to fight for the belt, even though he already held the WBA and WBO 135-lb titles. The WBC then granted Lomachenko’s request, which permitted him to take the fight against Campbell instead of Haney. This was a controversial move by the WBC, because they normally don’t allow other champions to fight for their vacant belts. In the case of Lomachenko, they made an exception.
It wasn’t one of Lomachenko’s better performances in his career, as he was hurt at times, and he looked tired in the later portions of the fight. This wasn’t the fighter that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum merrily compared to a young Muhammad Ali. Unfortunately, Lomachenko is fighting more like Ali did when he was at the tail-end of his career at age 36, struggling to beat Leon Spinks. Lomachenko is not fighting like a young Ali. It’s not even close. Arum is getting carried away with Lomachenko from his mismatches against Anthony Crolla, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Miguel Marriaga and Jason Sosa. Those guys were just fodder for Lomachenko, as they would be for any quality fighter.
Lomachenko’s performance was that of an older fighter struggling against a young lion. Although Loma won, he did it based on his technical ability and experience.
Haney fighting Zaur Abdullaev on Sept.13
#2 WBC Haney will be fighting #4 WBC Zaur Abdullaev (11-0, 7 KOs) in a WBC lightweight title eliminator this month on September 13 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The winner of that fight will be the mandatory for Lomachenko’s WBC belt. Unfortunately, Lomachenko, 31, has made it clear that he plans on moving back down to super featherweight [130-lbs] as soon as he beats the winner of the Teofimo Lopez vs. Richard Commey fight for the IBF lightweight title.
That’s the last remaining belt at 135 that’s not in Lomachenko’s possession. He wants to win that belt to become the unified lightweight champion. Once Lomachenko does that, he’ll vacate all 4 of his lightweight belts, and move back down to 130, and go after a fight against Tank Davis. So instead of Haney fighting Lomachenko, he’ll probably wind up facing Campbell for the vacant WBC title. That’ll give the boxing public a chance to compare Haney’s performance against Campbell to that of Loma.