By Chris Williams: Eddie Hearn is livid after the WBC made Vasiliy Lomachenko the Franchise lightweight champion without letting interim WBC champion Devin Haney fight him. Hearn says Haney (23-0, 15 KOs) wasted his time going down the World Boxing Council mandatory route to get a title shot against Lomachenko, and now he’s BLOCKED.
Haney can’t touch Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) unless he’s picked by him and his promoter Bob Arum, and he’s NOT going to get picked. There was only a short window where the 20-year-old Haney could try and get a fight with Lomachenko. That window is closed now. Lomachenko will be fighting the winner of the Richard Commey vs. Teofimo Lopez fight, and then moving back down to super featherweight thereafter. All of Loma’s lightweight titles will be given up by him with that move.
Hearn is somewhat happy that Haney was elevated to WBC lightweight world champion on Wednesday. But he wanted him to win the belt by thrashing Lomachenko, and taking his seat on the throne of the lightweight division.
Hearn: Haney won’t get credit for being WBC champion without Lomachenko fight
“No,” said Hearn to IFL TV when asked if it’s fair that Haney has been upgraded to WBC lightweight title following Lomachenko being given Franchise tag. “I’m totally against the Franchise situation. “The WBC has done so many good things, but this is something they’ve done wrong. Devin Haney wanted to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko. He is today the WBC world champion, but he won’t get the credit.
“I don’t worry too much about Devin, because you’ll see him in the fights where he’ll get the genuine credit, but you don’t get that moment in the ring where, ‘It’s the new.’ It’s that feeling and that shot of greatness. His shot of greatness will come, because he’s 20-years-old. But why would you want to work your way up the rankings and try and become a mandatory if you never get your opportunity at that shot of greatness,” said Hearn.
Hearn is overlooking the fact that Lomachenko never showed the slightest amount of interest in fighting Haney. From day one, Lomachenko has been cool to the idea of defending against the young talent Haney. Loma obviously sees something in Haney that makes him disinclined to want to fight him. Considering that the 31-year-old Lomachenko will be vacating his WBC title after he faces the Commey-Lopez winner, it’s obvious he wasn’t going to fight Haney. Hearn needs to see the writing on the wall. There was never going to be an opportunity for Haney to fight Lomachenko. It’s interesting that Hearn is surprised by all this, because it’s already academic. Lomachenko doesn’t want the Haney fight and neither does Arum.
Haney is BLOCKED from fighting Lomachenko
“So if you’re a middleweight, and your dream is to fight Canelo, and you beat everybody, you can never get to fight him unless your picked,” said Hearn. “And you’re never going to get picked if you’re really good. The only way you’re going to get picked is if it’s a mega-fight. So we made a decision pre-Franchise stuff to go down the WBC route, because Devin Haney wanted to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko. He wanted his shot of greatness. So we did everything right. We got to the mandatory position, and now you’re blocked. You cannot get to Vasiliy Lomachenko.
“So this is great for Devin Haney. He’s world champion, and his contract goes up significantly on the back of that fact. But I would have liked to have him win that belt through a moment of greatness. Bob Arum would have been pushing for Vasiliy Lomachenko to become Franchise champion. They don’t want Devin Haney to be mandatory. Whether it’s a tough fight or whether it’s because I’m going to be aggressive on the bid and try and get it to DAZN. So they pushed to have Vasiliy Lomachenko the Franchise champion. But we want to fight,” said Hearn.
There are guys that Lomachenko has been fighting lately. All of them are flawed, and highly beatable.
- Jose Pedraza
- Jorge Linares
- Anthony Crolla
- Luke Campbell
- Guillermo Rigondeaux
- Miguel Marriaga
Most of them were easy marks for Lomachenko. Rigondeaux is the best of the bunch, but he had to move up 2 weight classes to fight Lomachenko. It was never going to be a fair fight. Haney’s name doesn’t fit with that group, because he has actual talent.
Hearn doubts Arum will let Lomachenko fight Haney
“I believe Vasiliy will take that fight. Maybe not Bob, but Vasiliy will want that fight,” said Hearn continuing with his rant about Haney being blocked by the WBC. “But you’ve got to respect Devin Haney, because that’s what he was trying to do. He was trying to get that fight with Vasiliy Lomachenko, but now he can’t get it. The fights not possible unless you’re picked. Let’s be honest. Are they going to pick Devin Haney? No. It’s an honor to be WBC champion, but we’d have rather have won it in a different manner.
“We didn’t go down the WBC route hoping Lomachenko would be made Franchise champion, and then Devin would be made WBC world champion. We went down that route to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko. By the way, that doesn’t stop now. The campaign continues to say, we want Vasiliy Lomachenko. The public must make sure Vasiliy Lomachenko takes that fight. In 2020, you’re going to see Devin in all the fights where you’re going to say, Okay, he’s earned his stripes as a world champion,'” said Hearn about Haney.
You can argue that if Arum isn’t letting Haney fight the 31-year-old Lomachenko now, he sure as heck won’t let him fight him later. Let’s face it; Lomachenko is getting old. While 31 is young for some fighters, it isn’t for Lomachenko. He looks old for his age. Having close to 400 amateur fights doesn’t help. That’ll age you. So when Lomachenko in his mid-30s, he’s going to be easy pickings for almost anyone, and Arum will likely try and extend his reign. The way to do that is to put Lomachenko in with fodder.
Devin Haney can’t touch Lomachenko says Hearn
“You’ll see the greatness of Devin Haney over time, and we want the Vasiliy Lomachenko fight,” said Hearn. “If you’re striving for greatness, you can’t be refused a shot at greatness. This conversation with Devin has been going on for a year, ‘I want Lomachenko.’ They want the same, and they believe they can beat Lomachenko. We know Bob Arum isn’t going to let us fight Vasiliy Lomachenko, so let’s become mandatory. We done that, and they’ve made sure he can’t touch him [Lomachenko],” said Hearn.
Haney definitely can’t tough Lomachenko, and he likely won’t. With Arum banging on about Lomachenko being as good as a young Ali, he’s not going to put that to a test by matching him against Lomachenko. In truth, Haney is the guy that is similar to a young Muhammad Ali.
