Devin Haney: I would KO Jorge Linares

By Boxing News - 06/25/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: It’s been seven months since Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney last fought, and he’s now resorting to predicting a knockout win over Ryan Garcia’s much-desired opponent Jorge Linares.

Haney’s promoter Eddie Hearn says his next fight will likely be against 2012 Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell in September or October. Campbell, 32, is a decent fighter, but he’s not on the level of Linares, who beat him already in September 2017 by a 12 round split decision in Inglewood, California.

Hearn promotes both Haney and Campbell, so the fight between them makes perfect sense. He’s taking care of those two by putting them in with each other, and it’s the ideal situation.

A win for Campbell turns him into a world champion and puts him in position to face WBA/WBC/WBO champ Vasiliy Lomachenko in a rematch. Campbell lost to Lomachenko by a 12 round decision last August in London, England. Lomachenko was the better man, but Campbell looked impressive and pushed the Ukrainian fighter.

Although promoter Eddie Hearn and many British fans felt that Campbell deserved the win, the judges didn’t see it that way. Boxing News saw Linares winning the first four and the last four rounds to win eight rounds to four.

When Linares turned on his offense, he would shift into another gear and leave Campbell looking slow and pedestrian.

That’s a fight that Hearn will likely need to stage behind closed doors rather than in front of a crowd. At this point, the 21-year-old Haney just wants to fight period.

Haney would like to fight Linares

Unlike fighters like Terence Crawford, Haney isn’t going to sit idle waiting for someday in the future when a vaccine is created to clear up the world problem with the pandemic.

Staying active, even if it’s not the ideal situation to maximize revenue, is the key to turning Haney into a star.

There’s no chance of WBC lightweight champion Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) facing the 34-year-old Linares (47-5, 29 KOs)

If Haney takes the Linares fight, he’ll have Ryan Garcia hopping mad because that’s the guy that he wants to fight in 2020. King Ryan wanted to fight Linares in July, but Jorge couldn’t get into the U.S due to the travel ban.

If Golden Boy Promotions isn’t able to come up with the money to satisfy both Ryan and Linares for a fight in September, then Matchroom may be able to snatch against Jorge for Haney to fight.

It could come down to Matchroom having the deeper pockets to get Linares if Golden Boy can’t come up with enough green to satisfy King Ryan. Recently, Ryan Garcia rejected a $200,000 offer from Golden Boy to headline their July 4 show. For a headline spot, $200K would seem to be on the low side, but the pandemic has changed things around.

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