By Sam Volz: Paulie Malignaggi says it makes sense for Devin Haney to vacate his undisputed championship now to avoid fighting Vasyl Lomachenko.
In terms of business, Malignaggi says Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) should move up in weight rather than fight Lomachenko and lose to him, which he believes will definitely happen if the two fight.
Although Malignaggi says he’d like to see Haney begin fighting good opposition because he feels he hasn’t done so yet, it’s a bad idea for him to fight Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs).
That guy is on another level, and he’ll easily take Haney’s four belts, and send him up to 140 with a big fat loss on his record.
Who’s to say whether Haney will ever mentally recover from a one-sided shellacking by Lomachenko, considering it would be a tough loss to digest?
It’s going to be hard enough for the light-hitting Haney to compete with the big punchers in the 140-lb division as it is.
The punch & grab technique that Haney uses to win fights won’t work against the top fighters at 140 because they’ll batter him in the clinches with point-blank headshots, and he’d be forced to try and win on the outside.
“Business-wise, it makes more sense to move up in weight and avoid Lomachenko,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Pauly TV about what Devin Haney should do to avoid a sure-thing loss to Vasyl Lomachenko.
“I do want to start watching Devin Haney against top fighters. I wouldn’t knock you business-wise if you moved up in weight and avoided that fight [against Lomachenko].
“You wouldn’t keep the undisputed title, but you’d keep the undefeated record, and you keep the image of an undefeated fighter. He’s in a position where he can do that.
“I’d like to see Haney and Lomachenko. I’d like to get that result out there. If Lomachenko didn’t go deal with a war in his country, you [Haney] wouldn’t have gotten the title shot.
“You’d still be parading around with that popcorn belt [aka WBC 135-lb email title] that nobody but your racist fans thought was a real belt anyway,” Malignaggi continued about Haney. “You’d still be parading around with it.
“I think Lomachenko is better than him; I think Shakur Stevenson is better than him. On a certain night, a focused Teofimo Lopez has more weapons at his disposal Devin Haney.
“I can only gauge by the guys he’s [Haney] fought, and of the guys he fought, he probably has the weakest resume, bro. Your resume is mad weak, and your fans are blinded as if you’ve got a good resume.
“You fought a guy that nobody has heard of [Zaur Abdullaev] to win your popcorn title. You beat a shot Linares. He wasn’t just shot. He was super shot,” said Malignaggi.
