By William Lloyd: Eddie Hearn said in an interview on Thursday that he plans on making a “huge offer” to three-belt lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez to fight WBC champ Devin Haney for the undisputed 135-lb championship if Devin wins his fight against Jorge Linares this Saturday night.
Of course, Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) will need to beat his next opponent George Kambosos Jr on June 19th for the fight with Haney (25-0, 15 KOs) to go down. Teofimo is expected to cruise to an easy victory over his IBF mandatory Kambosos Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) in their fight on Triller pay-per-view.
Haney must beat Linares
The one to worry about is Haney, who is taking a big step up in class in taking on the former three-division world champion Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) this Saturday, May 29th, on DAZN at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hearn says he views Haney as the #1 fighter in the lightweight division and a guy poised to be a superstar.
With that said, Hearn notes that Haney has never fight anyone good enough to know whether his ability can match the hype.
We’ve all heard the sparring stories about how Teofimo got the better of Haney to the point where he quit.
If the story is true, Hearn might be smarter to forget about making the Haney-Teofimo fight. He should let Teofimo move up to 140 if he’s successful in his title defense against Kambosos Jr on June 19th.
Hearn to make an offer to Teofimo
“I want to see how good Devin Haney is. I believe he’s the best lightweight in the world,” said Hearn to Boxing Social.
“We’ve always made it clear that we want to fight Teofimo Lopez,” Hearn continued. “Teofimo Lopez, the only way he can become undisputed is to beat Devin Haney,” said Hearn.
It’s too bad Haney doesn’t have time to get another two or three fights under his belt at 135 before he faces Teofimo because he doesn’t look ready.
Haney doesn’t have enough pop in his punches for him to do well against Teofimo, and he might get knocked out.
“I saw Josh Taylor’s comments where he goaded him about it as well,” said Hearn. “By the way, Teofimo, I’ve said this before; he deserves to be undisputed. He’s not.
“He has to beat Devin Haney to become undisputed, and I think Teofimo Lopez is more than up to fight Devin Haney, and he believes he can beat him.
“If Devin Haney wins on Saturday, Teofimo will receive a huge offer to fight Devin Haney. It is an absolute super-fight.
It’s two brilliant young fighters, but first, we have to handle our business on Saturday. Teofimo has got to beat George Kambosos.
“I’m a big Teofimo fan, but we will be making a sizable offer for him to fight Devin Haney if Devin can win on the weekend,” said Haney.
