By Adam Baskin: Derek Chisora was just raving about the talent of undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney last weekend in Saudi Arabia.
Chisora likes what he sees of the undefeated lightweight champion Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) after his two wins over Australian George Kambosos Jr last year.
Obviously, Haney, 24, has a lot more to prove because beating Kambosos, who was a mediocre contender that had never done anything until his upset win over the weight-drained, injured Teofimo Lopez, isn’t enough to earn him the kind of praise that Chisora is giving him.
Haney has a big fight in front of him against Vasyl Lomachenko on May 20th, which he’s trying to stage in Saudi Arabia. If Haney wins that fight, he’s going to be expected to stay at 135 to face these vicious sharks:
- Shakur Stevenson
- Frank Martin
- Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis
- Edwin Dos Los Santos
- Keyshawn Davis
- William Zepeda
- Isaac Pitbull Cruz
If Haney bails out after beating an old and smallish 34-year-old Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs), he will look like he’s got a yellow streak a mile long, running from the battlefield just when facing adversity for the first time.
It’s one thing beating a ham & egger fighter like Kambosos Jr and old undersized Lomachenko, but it’s a different story toughing it out against the murderer’s row of the real talents in the above list. If Haney vacates without fighting any of them, then we’ll know he lost his nerve.
“The way he beat his last opponents. Outsmarting them,” said Derek Chisora to Secondsout about Devin Haney. “He doesn’t fight for the crowd.
“That works for him. The jab. When he opens up with the jab, then everything else comes together.”
Who did Haney actually beat? That’s what I’m asking. Haney’s best wins thus far have come against these fighters: Jorge Linares, Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz, and Kambosos Jr. Those aren’t A-level lightweights.
“I’ve seen this guy go to Australia twice [to fight George Kambosos Jr], and on top of that, they tried to disrupt his whole camp by saying his dad could not go, and I thought he was going to be fazed about it,” said Chisora.
“You know what happened? God was looking after him. He just got on the plane, he went there, dealt with the guy, came back, went back again, dealt with the guy, came back, and the guy’s still sitting there holding his head saying ‘what happened?’”