Lou DiBella compares Devin Haney to Mayweather after victory over Kambosos

By Boxing News - 10/17/2022 - Comments

By Sean Jones: George Kambosos Jr’s promoter Lou DiBella poured on the praise of Devin Haney something heavy, comparing him to Floyd Mayweather Jr after his victory over little ‘The Emperor’ last Saturday night at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.

Unfortunately, the reality is this was the farthest thing you could get to a Mayweather-esque performance by the 23-year-old Haney (29-0, 14 KOs), as he was hit a lot by the former unified lightweight champion Kambosos (20-2, 10 KOs). It was more like a younger Adrien Broner performance from Kambosos than it was Mayweather.

There’s nothing wrong with Haney being another Broner because he was a good fighter when he fought at super featherweight before he was battered & beaten by Marcos Maidana. In those early days, Broner was frequently compared to Mayweather.

I dare say that Broner was compared way more to Mayweather than Haney is today, and his career sank almost immediately when he moved up in weight to 147. I suspect that Haney’s career will sink before he leaves the 135-lb division, and it will definitely drop to the bottom when he moves up to 140.

Haney is a good basic fighter that appears to be mimicking Mayweather’s fighting style, but he doesn’t possess the hand speed, reflexes, or defensive ability that even an old 40-year-old Floyd possessed before retiring.

When/if Haney fights Vasyl Lomachenko, he will get badly exposed, and the boxing fans who thought he was genuine 24k gold will discover that he was just fools gold.

The fans will then jump off the bandwagon and realize they were tricked by all the soft match-making that had been done on Haney’s behalf to make him look better than he actually is.

Although Haney won by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, he was bloodied and fought nothing like a  young Mayweather.  The scores were 119-109, 118-110, and 118-110.

After the right, Haney opted not to mention Vasyl Lomachenko & Shakur Stevenson’s names, both of which are chomping at the bit to fight him next.

The only thing that Haney could say in that regard was, “I’m going to talk to Bob Arum and see what’s next. There’s a lot of big fights at 135 and a lot of big money at 135. We’ll see what’s next, but it’s likely for me to stay.”

Haney will probably taste defeat if he faces Lomachenko or Stevenson next because he’s not shown the kind of talent during his young career that would indicate that he could beat either of those two fighters.

It was a stroke of luck that Kambosos Jr got his hands on “them beautiful” belts after beating an injured & sickly Teofimo Lopez in 2021.

If Haney had to go through Lomachenko or Shakur to capture the titles he has at 135, he’d have lost, and he’d be viewed in the same light as other exposed contenders in the division like Isaac Cruz.

He [Devin Haney] hurt him pretty badly and beat him up, and that’s the greatness of a guy like this and the greatness of a Floyd Mayweather,” said Kambosos’ promoter Lou DiBella to the Australian media last Saturday night after Devin Haney defeated George Kambosos Jr.

You notice I’m using them [Haney & Mayweather] in the same breath, and that’s not accidental.

“When we watch fights sometimes, and you used to watch Mayweather, and he would quietly destroy guys and beat their spirit and win almost every round, and people would go, ‘Oh, that’s boring,’” DiBella continued with his high praise of the 23-year-old.

“When you open up against a guy like this [Haney], when you open up against a guy like Floyd, one of the best ever, when you open up against a guy like Shakur Stevenson, that’s a similar kind of almost-perfect boxer, you open yourself up to get beaten up,” said DiBella.

The praise that DiBella is pouring over Haney’s head is undeserved at this time because his win over a mediocre Kambosos was nothing special.

Kambosos is a badly flawed fighter that would have never won the belts that he briefly had if Teofimo had been healthy for that fight, and there’s no way on earth that he would have beaten Lomachenko, Gervonta Davis or Shakur Stevenson.

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