By Jeff Aronow: Devin Haney wants Vasiliy Lomachenko to stop with the injury excuses, take his loss to Teofimo Lopez, and move on with his career. Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) says Lomachenko needs to “regroup” and go back to the drawing board.
Haney isn’t showing much sympathy to Lomachenko about his defeat and the shoulder injury he suffered. Devin would like to fight Teofimo himself, so he’s not about to give words of encouragement to Loma right now.
The shoulder injury news from Team Lomachenko has Haney saying he’s not sure that he deserves a rematch with Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs).
Devin doesn’t like the emphasis being made on Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) having a right-shoulder injury for the fight.
Lomachenko lost his WBA, WBC Franchise, and WBO lightweight titles in his 12 round unanimous decision defeat against Teofimo on October 17th. He wants a rematch with Lopez, but he understands that it’s up to him.
Lopez says he’s going in a different direction and leaving Lomachenko in his rearview mirror for his next fight. He wants a fight against one of these guys in early 2021:
- Ryan Garcia
- Devin Haney
- Josh Taylor
- Jose Ramirez
- Gervonta Davis
You can throw in Luke Campbell’s name into the mix if he beats Ryan Garcia on December 5th.
Haney wants fans to pressure Top Rank for the Teofimo fight
“We’re definitely in talks about doing a fight,” said Haney to Fighthype about a fight between him and Teofimo. “I was also congratulating him on his win [over Vasily Lomachenko].
“I’m not a hater, and I respect that he got the win. I think that’s what it’s going to take for the fight [Teofimo vs. Haney] to be made because it doesn’t seem like Bob Arum is too quick to do business with me or putting his fighters against me.
“The fans got to put the pressure on him, and the fan got to press the fight. Me and him got to come together and make the fight happen if that’s something he really wants to do and something I want to do.
“We didn’t get too deep into it, but we definitely talked about making the fight happen. He said he would want to make the fight happen, and I said I want to make the fight happen,” said Haney.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum already said that Haney is not someone to match Teofimo up against right now. Arum says that Haney isn’t well-known with the casual boxing fans. He sees him as mainly known among small circles of hardcore boxing fans.
Devin, 21, hasn’t been around long enough for him to fight enough top-level fighters for him to become a popular fighter with the casuals. Indeed, Haney has never fought anyone that comes close to being a popular fighter.
Haney’s best wins to date:
- Alfredo Santiago
- Antonio Moran
- Zaur Abdullaev
- Juan Carlos Burgos
- Xolisani Ndongeni
- Mason Menard
Those aren’t household names in the lightweight division, and it’s pretty clear why Top Rank isn’t interested in matching Teofimo against Haney.
Haney needs wins over fighters like Ryan Garcia, Luke Campbell, Gervonta Davis, and Lomachenko to build his name.
Devin says Lomachenko needs to move on
“I felt he went in there and got the job done, but I felt it was a lot closer than what the scorecards said,” Haney said about Teofimo’s win over Lomachenko. “Do I think he deserved to win?
“Yeah, of course. The scorecards were a lot further than people thought, but he did get the win. I’m sure a lot of people thought he got the win. It was close but he got the win.
“If it was a draw, I kind of would have been upset with a draw. I thought he got the win. I could see where people would want a rematch because Loma didn’t start until the seventh round.
“So it was like, ‘Okay, what if Loma had started earlier?’ But now Loma is coming up with these excuses, saying his shoulder. Do you deserve a rematch?
“Take your loss like a man just like you take your wins when you go in there and knock people out and do damage to other people and things happen and then your happy.
“Take your loss like you take your wins. Move on and go back to the drawing board and regroup,” said Haney about Lomachenko.
It looks like Lomachenko will be fired to regroup and move on with his career. It works against Teofimo not to give Lomachenko a rematch because too many people know about his injury.
Lomachenko isn’t just going to forget his defeat and move on without trying to get a rematch. He reacted the same way when he lost to Orlando Salido in 2014. Lomachenko tried to get a rematch, and when it was clear that Salido didn’t want a second fight, he moved on.
Haney not sure if Loma would win the rematch with Lopez?
“That’s just the chances that you take when you go in there and you try to be the aggressor and you try to put pressure on somebody,” said Haney.
“You take the chances to get hit with punches but we don’t know. What we would want to see in a rematch is if he starts faster. We don’t know because he didn’t really start throwing punches until the seventh round.
“Up to that point, I don’t think he threw more than 20 or 30 punches. So we’d have to see if he starts throwing punches. It may be worse for him. He may have gotten knocked out.
“We don’t know. But it leaves the question in our minds to say, ‘what if they do a rematch?’ I’m sure Loma will start faster. What will happen?” said Devin about whether Lomachenko would win a rematch with Lopez.
If Lomachenko were to put massive pressure on Teofimo from the opening round, he’d have an excellent chance of beating him if he didn’t get knocked out in the early going.
Teofimo seems to be totally against giving Lomachenko a second fight, and that has some boxing fans wondering if there’s fear driving that. If Teofimo were confident in himself, he would give Lomachenko a rematch right away without question.
Haney believes he’ll beat Teofimo
“Me and Teofimo have been in the ring before, and I know some things that worked on him,” said Haney when asked why he believes he’d beaten Teofimo. Sparring is different from actually fighting under the lights.
“There are a few things that I could capitalize on [against Teofimo],” Devin continued. “Me and my team haven’t talked over the [Teofimo] fight too much because it’s not as realistic now. The fight I have next is Gamboa, so that’s the main focus.
“A lot of people are overlooking Gamboa and looking past him like he’s a mediocre opponent. He just went in there and fought Tank [Davis] and gave Tank the fight of his life.
“Nobody has ever done that with Tank. I just don’t understand it, but it’s part of the game and it is what it is. It’s better sweet. People think so highly of me that they look past Gamboa.
“You have to think that Gamboa is not a slouch. He’s not a journeyman. Not at all,” Devin said when asked if he’s overlooking Gamboa.
“I don’t overlook anybody because they got ten toes, ten fingers, two arms, two legs just like me,. So you can never look past nobody.
“That’s where a lot of great fighters have taken their losses because they were looking past somebody, and not taken them seriously. That’s what happened with Loma. I don’t think Loma took Teofimo seriously as he should,” Haney said.
The Haney we saw last November against Alfredo Santiago would lose to Teofimo and possibly get knocked out. Haney’s lack of power and speed would put him at the mercy of Teofimo’s power, and he could get battered.