By Sam Volz: Vasyl Lomachenko says his #1 target after this Saturday’s fight against Jamaine Ortiz is Devin Haney because he has the “four belts” at lightweight.
Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) is coming off a long layoff of ten months since his last fight, and he’s taking on ‘The Technician’ This Saturday, October 29th, on ESPN+ at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Loma feels that the Ortiz fight will be more like one of his amateur fights due to the technical skills that will be on display.
A victory over the 26-year-old Ortiz could catapult the two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko into a fight with the undisputed 135-lb champion Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) next, assuming he’s willing to face him.
We don’t know yet whether Haney will agree to the fight or not. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said after his win over George Kambosos Jr on October 15th that he’d like to make a Haney vs. Lomachenko fight, but it remains to be seen if Devin & his dad Bill will agree to that.
You can’t blame Haney if he chooses to avoid the Lomachenko fight because it’s a bad style match-up for him because Loma arguably has far better technical skills, and he has much more experience as a professional and especially as an amateur.
Haney can always blame a loss to Lomachenko on being weight drained, and many of the hardcore boxing fans would buy into that. Obviously, the casuals wouldn’t be aware of Haney’s weight excuse and would see it as a case of Lomachenko being the better fighter.
“I think he’s a young, ambitious fighter. He’s undefeated, and he has good technique and other things in boxing,” said Lomachenko to Yahoo Sports when asked about Jamaine Ortiz.
New York is about to have a problem 😈
Welcome to #LomaOrtiz fight week 📍 pic.twitter.com/U2ggJNoPLM
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 24, 2022
“Ortiz is a technician. He has speed. He likes to go for various combinations, and he moves well in the ring. I think that this fight will remind you of a good amateur fight.
“I didn’t have many options, so I was offered two potential contenders, and I chose Ortiz because he’s undefeated. This fight against the young and ambitious fighter will show whether it’s the case,” said Lomachenko about whether he’s near to being the same fighter physically he’d once been.
“The opponent number one for me would be Devin Haney because he has four belts right now. And from the boxing style standpoint, that would be Gervonta Davis.
