By Sean Jones: Devin Haney sounds frustrated at his inability to get the George Kambosos Jr. fight, and he says he may choose to move up to 140. As vulnerable as Kambosos is as a fighter, it makes perfect sense for his promoter to get the best possible deal he can.
You can argue that Kambosos is the textbook definition of a paper champion, a guy that is vulnerable against almost any of the top 15 contenders, even the bottom feeders.
Kambosos likely will never win another world title for the remainder of his career once he loses “them beautiful belts,” so he’s got to get the best deal humanely possible before the straps are rudely ripped away from him by one of the big three [Vasily Lomachenko, Haney and Ryan Garcia] that are vying for the fight.
Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is immune to the lure of a fight against Kambosos, as he’s off into his world, fighting Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero.
DiBella = the puppeteer
The problem Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) and the other top 135-pound contenders are having is they’re being played by the old fox, promoter Lou DiBella, who is trying to get the best deal for fighter Kambosso Jr.
DiBella is the puppetmaster, giving hope to Haney, Ryan Garcia, and Vasily Lomachenko of the possibility that one of them can get the golden ticket to face four-belt champion Kambosos Jr. in Australia in a stadium fight.
Although Haney, 23, would seem to have the best shot of the fighters being mentioned as options for Kambosos, he’s not happy with the slow progress. Devin wants the fight to be done with already to get closure on the process and start training for the contest.
“That’s a huge possibility if we can’t make this undisputed fight happen,” said Devin Haney to Fight Hub TV when asked if he could move up to 140 if they can’t make the fight with Kambosos Jr.
“140 is very likely, but it shouldn’t be no undisputed fight. It should not happen. The fight to be made is me vs. George Kambosos for all the belts, and that’s what we’re pushing for.
“I don’t know what may happen. He’s saying a lot of different things. One moment it’s this one moment it’s that.
“I think it’s really Lou DiBella. Lou DiBella, he’s out of his mind. George Kambosos is out of his mind,” said Haney.
If Haney doesn’t get the fight soon with Kambosos, he needs to move on rather than invest any further time. Anyway, it’s not as if Haney will be transformed into a star with a victory over Kambosos.
If anything, Haney will still be matched with utter care by his promoter Hearn, keeping him out of harm’s way like a mother hen protecting her little nestlings.
Whatever glory that Haney gains from a victory over the belt-holder Kambosos, it’ll be fleeting because he would then need to fight Lomachenko, and it would then all come crashing down.
Lomachenko will likely make Haney look silly and embarrass him like he did many opponents during his professional career. Losing to Lomachenko would wreck Haney’s career to the point where his promoter Hearn couldn’t rebuild him.
If Haney were as good as Hearn purports to be, defeating Kambosos would be his coming-out party.
What we’ll likely see is Hearn continuing to match Haney against old guys after the Kambosos fight, keeping him far, far away from Lomachenko to avoid an embarrassing defeat.