By Chris Williams: Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney says not interested in waiting around for Vasyl Lomachenko to take a tune-up fight in October.
Lomachenko will return from the warzone in his country, and he hasn’t fought since his victory over Richard Commey last December.
That fight was one of two tune-ups that the former three-division world champion Lomachenko had in 2021, and now he’s looking for a third warm-up bout.
If Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) isn’t ready to fight Devin after he takes care of former unified 135-lb champion George Kambosos Jr on October 15th, then he’ll have missed the boat.
As the four-belt lightweight champion, Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) isn’t going to be dictated to by Lomachenko for when the two are ready to fight. Haney says, “I wait for no one. I’m the champ!”
If Haney did wait for Lomachenko, the fight wouldn’t take place until the first quarter of 2023.
“Devin Haney has an obligation to fight Kambosos again, and we’ve let Haney know that if Lomachenko is out of Ukraine, he will take a tune-up fight,” said Bob Arum to Barbershop Conversations.
“And then if Haney beats Kambosos, then Haney would get the Lomachenko fight.
It looks like Haney won’t be fighting Lomachenko, but it doesn’t matter because there are a number of contenders at 135 that are ready & willing to fight Haney without the need for a tune-up.
Lomachenko has arguably never been interested in fighting Haney, as he gave up his WBC title rather than fight him. That’s the reason the World Boxing Council elevated Haney to the WBC 135-lb champion and made Lomachenko the Franchise champ.
Tune this dick… I wanted the fight now! I’m the champ I don’t have to wait on no one! https://t.co/K6DpVZJrUu
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) August 7, 2022
It’s odd that Lomachenko would walk away from a chance to become the undisputed lightweight champion because that’s something that he’s talked about wanting for a long time.
Now that the opportunity is in front of Loma, he suddenly needs a tune-up fight, even though he fought last December. Oleksandr Usyk was in the warzone as well, and he’s not insisting on taking a tune-up bout before fighting Anthony Joshua this month on August 20th.
Usyk is a little less needy than Lomachenko, I suppose. I guess why he’s the unified heavyweight champion, where as Lomachenko is belt-less at the moment.
