By Kenneth Friedman: The WBC has ordered lightweight champion Devin Haney and mandatory Javier Fortuna to begin negotiations, according to ESPN. A purse bid is scheduled for December 13 if the management for the two fighters are unable to reach a deal. Fortuna is ranked #3 with the WBC.
What’s interesting is Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is rated #1 by the WBC, and yet it’s Fortuna that is being given a shot at fighting Haney instead of him.
This is a minor step up in class for Haney from his last fight against Alfredo Santiago last weekend. Haney babored to an unspectacular 12 round unanimous decision over Santiago on the undercard of KSI vs. Logan Paul at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Fortuna hasn’t looked that great in the last three years, and he’s starting to show age. This fight might not be competitive. Fortuna will make it interesting due to his power, but this is likely to be a mismatch. Haney has too much youth, speed and talent compared to Fortuna.
Haney to make second defense of WBC title
This will be the WBC 135-lb champion Haney’s second defense of his title that he won outside of the ring last October. Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) won the interim WBC lightweight belt on September 13 in beating Zaur Abdullaev by a 4th round knockout.
After his win over Abdullaev, the 20-year-old Haney was hoping the World Boxing Council would order WBC champion Vasiliy Lomachenko to defend against him. Instead of doing that, the WBC gave Lomachenko their Franchise tag, and they then elevated Haney to full WBC lightweight champ.
The move by the WBC meant that Haney wouldn’t be able to force a fight against Lomachenko, who seemingly has little interest in fighting him right now.
Fortuna (35-2-1, 24 kOs) is a former WBA super featherweight champion. He briefly held the WBA title from 2015 to 2016 before losing it to Jason Sosa by an 11th round knockout. Since that loss, the 30-year-old Fortuna has won six out of his last eight fights. He lost to Robert Easter Jr. by a 12 round split decision last year in January 2018. A lot of boxing fans thought Fortuna deserved the win in that fight.
Some boxing fans were disturned by Fortuna’s performance against Adrian Granados last year. Fortuna fell out of the ring in the 4th round, and suffered a shoulder injury and couldn’t continue. The fight was then ruled a no decision.
Fortuna has won his last two fights in beating Jesus Marcelo Andres Cuellar and Sharif Bogere. Those were good wins for Fortuna, but nothing that would suggest that he’s capable of beating Haney.
Haney wants to fight Luke Campbell
The match that Haney wants is against recent world title challenger Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs), not Fortuna. Haney and Campbell would have fought for the vacant WBC lightweight title if not for Lomachenko petitioning to the WBC to ask them to allow him to fight for the vacant belt against Campbell.
The WBC allowed Lomachenko to jump to the front of the line to battle for their title despite him already holding the WBA and WBO lightweight belts. Campbell was easily beaten by Lomachenko by a 12 round unanimous decision on August 31.
Campbell would be a tougher fight for Haney than Fortuna, and that’s a match that would be difficult to predict at this point.