By Craig Page: Fans are waiting for Devin Haney to say whether he’ll give Vasyl Lomachenko a chance to fight for his undisputed lightweight championship if he successfully beats Jamaine Ortiz this Saturday night in their headliner on ESPN in New York.
Top Rank wants Haney to defend against Lomachenko in the third fight of his three-fight contract.
The first two fights for Haney in contract with Top Rank were easy throwaway matches against a mediocre-looking George Kambosos Jr, who stumbled into the picking up belts from an injured & sickly-looking Teofimo Lopez in 2021.
Understandably, U.S boxing fans weren’t all that excited about either of Haney’s two fights with Kambosos, as they didn’t see either match as competitive.
Given that, Top Rank wants Haney’s third fight of his contract with them to be against Lomachenko, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll go along with the program.
Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) looked terrible at the weigh-in for his last fight against George Kambosos Jr, and he might be thinking about moving up in weight to 140 without giving Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) the opportunity to fight for his four belts.
The excuse is there for Haney if he decides he wants no part of fighting Lomachenko before moving up to light welterweight.
ππππππππππ'π πππππ ποΈ
After an incredible 396 wins and only 1 defeat in the amateur game, Vasiliy Lomachenko made his long-awaited pro debut in 2013. π«@trboxing | #LomaOrtiz pic.twitter.com/rkDJL5RxPv
— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) October 26, 2022
Not only is there the weight issue for Devin, but also, Lomachenko didn’t give him a shot when he was pushing for a fight in 2019. If Haney wants payback, he can ignore Loma, and tell fans that he didn’t want to give him the chance to fight three years ago, so he’s giving him similar treatment.
If the Haney-Lomachenko fight does happen, Lomachenko wins rather easily. He has more experience, skills, power, speed, and overall ability than Haney.
Haney’s reluctance to come out and say he’ll give Top Rank what they want by fighting Lomachenko suggests that he could be aware that he’s not good enough to win this fight.
If Haney thought he could win, he’d take the fight so that he could increase his popularity by beating one of the biggest names in the lighter-weight classes.
Thus far, Haney hasn’t beaten a respected enough fighter to increase his popularity to the level of a Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis or even Ryan Garcia. Haney’s fighting style isn’t appealing enough to the average fan for him to have gotten popular.
