Devin Haney on Vasiliy Lomachenko: ‘I DON’T care’

By Boxing News - 04/04/2020 - Comments

By Chris Williams:  Devin Haney has reached the stage where he no longer cares about trying to get a fight against unified lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko. Haney earned the WBC mandatory spot, but Lomachenko never fought him.

Now that Lomachenko has the Franchise Tag, he’s exempt from having to fight Haney. Additionally, he’s not showing interest in fighting him. Haney says that Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum will never let him fight any of his Top Rank guys.

Haney is currently WBC ‘Champion in Recess,’ and he’s waiting for boxing to begin again. The World Boxing Council has ordered Haney’s mandatory Javier Fortuna to face Luke Campbell for the vacant WBC lightweight title.

The WBC still wants Campbell and Fortuna to fight for their belt even though Haney’s injured shoulder has healed, and he’s ready to defend his WBC title. Haney’s WBC title was taken from him by the sanctioning body after he suffered a shoulder injury in his last fight against Alfredo Santiago last November.

Haney: Arum won’t let his guys fight me

“I really don’t,” said Haney to Fighthype when asked if he doesn’t care about Lomachenko. “That’s basically how they answer when you ask them [Lomachenko’s promoters]. “They have no interest in fighting me. Loma said some stuff the other day on Instagram. ‘Let’s make this fight happen,’ but in reality, Bob Arum wouldn’t let his guys fight me.

“He said something like that. Who knows? Who cares?” said Haney when asked who will win between him and Lomachenko when they fight.

It’s perfectly understandable why Haney, 21, wouldn’t care about Lomachenko at this stage. With there being no chance of facing Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs), then it’s a waste of time for Haney to concentrate on him. The guys that Haney needs to focus on is the Fortuna vs. Campbell scrape.

Those two are fighting for Haney’s belt.  Haney’s ‘Champion in Recess’ tag will allow him to fight the winner of the Fortuna-Cambell bout.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense for the WBC to have still Fortuna and Campbell fighting. Haney says he’s healthy once again and ready to defend against his WBC mandatory Fortuna.

It’s not a big deal though for Haney. Haney is ready to challenge the winner of the Campbell vs. Fortuna fight to recapture his WBC title. Haney will need to wait for those two to fight, and that won’t be soon.

Image: Devin Haney on Vasiliy Lomachenko: 'I DON'T care'

NO one cares about Fortuna vs. Campbell

“No one is even paying attention to that fight at all. Nobody is even paying attention to Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell,” said Haney about these two fighters that will be battling for the vacant WBC lightweight title stripped from Devin. “Nobody even cares. They’re about to fight.

“Does anyone even care to watch them fight? Just tell the truth. They’re supposed to be fighting for the WBC world title, and then the winner fights me for the whole thing because I’m still the champion in recess.

“I did an interview and said I got stripped of my world title. And I didn’t get stripped. I made a mistake. People were quoting me, ‘Oh, Devin Haney is stripped.’ Devin Haney is NOT stripped. Devin Haney is the ‘Champion in Recess.’

“They [Fortuna and Campbell] haven’t fought yet. It knocked their fight off. They have no fight scheduled because obviously, we don’t know when it’s going to be over.

“So now that I’m back and I’m healthy and ready to fight my mandatory Javier Fortuna or Luke Campbell. But Javier Fortuna is the mandatory. So why not let me fight Javier Fortuna? And then Luke Campbell can fight the winner. Yeah, no problem,” said Haney when asked if he would be willing to fight Fortuna and Campbell back to back.

There’s not a lot of interest from boxing fans in the Campbell vs. Fortuna fight. Both of them have lost to before, and they’re not good enough to hold down a world title with the talented fighters in the division today.

Image: Devin Haney on Vasiliy Lomachenko: 'I DON'T care'

Haney frustrated

“We obviously saw that we can’t force Lomachenko to do anything because I was the mandatory, and he somehow got out of it,” said Haney. “So you can’t force Lomachnenko to do anything. We’ll really have to see. Since I’ve been resting and recovering and everything.

“I just let my body rest and see whatever weight that I fell at. I’m lighter than the weight I was when I was training. It’s unbelievable. I feel like I lost muscle mass. I was doing too much conditioning and stuff like that. But now I way than when I was training every day with three workouts a day.  I think I could make the weight pretty good.

“You never know,” said Haney when asked if he thinks he can stay at 135 for a little while longer. “Weight cuts are always easy until those last couple of pounds. In those last couple of pounds, I’m like, ‘Oh f***.’ I don’t think I was overtraining because I felt good, but the type of training I was doing I was doing wrong.

“I was in crazy shape, and I wouldn’t get tired, but I felt that maybe I was doing the wrong type of training. I make no mistakes. Everything happens for a reason. I was still in monster shape, and still stopping all my sparring partners. I felt like a monster, but I put on too much muscle mass,” said Haney.

Haney still has good options

It won’t be a big deal if Lomachenko fails to fight Haney. Devin can fight Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis and the Fortuna vs. Campbell winner.

Lomachenko fights whoever he wants to. If that’s Haney, it would be interesting to see what Top Rank would do. Will they let Lomachenko fight Haney, or will they balk at the deal? Haney would be a hard fight for Lomachenko, and he could lose. Loma is getting old now, and Haney’s fighting style would be all wrong for him.

Lomachenko is fighting IBF lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez next at a still to be determined date. If Loma wins that fight, he’ll be returning to the 130-lb division, a weight class that he previously fought at.

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