Devin Haney vs. Vasyl Lomachenko likely for May 20th

By Boxing News - 01/15/2023 - Comments

By Craig Page: Devin Haney vs. Vasyl Lomachenko mega-fight is heading towards May 20th at a still-to-be-determined. Haney says the fight won’t occur at Madison Square Garden in New York.

As previously reported last Friday by Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN, May 20th for potentially New York, undisputed lightweight champion Haney (29-0, 15 KOs).

On social media, fans are talking about the Haney-Lomachenko potentially taking place in the Middle East. If a tremendous site fee is offered to stage the Haney vs. Lomachenko fight in Saudi Arabia, for example, you can bet that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will accept it in a second and take it there.

It’s still up in the air whether the Haney-Lomachenko fight will take place in New York or elsewhere. We’ll soon see, but May 20th at least looks good. Haney wanted March for the fight, but Lomachenko, the more accomplished fighter, is getting the May 20th date he wanted.

That plays in Lomachenko’s favor and could hurt the weakened Haney, who will need to rush to take off weight and prepare after Ramadan ends on April 21st.

Last Friday, Haney, 24, posted on social media that the Loma fight will be on PPV, which resulted in a tremendous amount of criticism from boxing fans on social media, many of them saying the fight isn’t worth of pay-per-view status.

Of course, Haney’s promoters can stick it on PPV regardless and hope that enough fans will purchase it to where it will partially cover the purses for Devin & Lomachenko.

Haney & Lomachenko’s promoters at Top Rank are hoping to stage the fight, but it’s unclear at this time if it will. It might not be a big enough fight for it to take place overseas because Haney isn’t a big star yet, and the best names he has on his resume are George Kambosos Jr and Jorge Linares.

Against Lomachenko on May 20 at MSG… it doesn’t sound bad, but PPV?” said Salvador Rodriguez on Twitter.

Scheduling the fight for May 20th works in the 34-year-old Lomachenko’s favor because Haney has Ramadan up until April 21st, and it’s unlikely he’ll be at full strength with so little time to prepare.

What’s interesting is that Haney, as the undisputed four-belt champion, didn’t have enough cache to get the March date that he wanted for the fight.