By Dan Ambrose: Devin Haney is looking forward to his “legacy fight” against challenger Vasyl Lomacchenko on May 20th, and he feels that he will prove to the fans what he would have done to Loma if the two had fought years ago.
Right now, the question is whether Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) will make the 135-lb limit three months from now without missing weight or being so drained that he’s easy pickings for the former three-division world champion Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs).
Haney has a tremendous advantage over Lomachenko because he looks at least two divisions bigger, if not three.
Will Haney be drained for Loma?
If Haney is drained for the fight, he could be in serious trouble because Lomachenko will have no problems with the weight and will be at full strength.
With the size and youth advantage, the 24-year-old Haney has over the 34-year-old Lomachenko, he will take a heap of criticism from boxing fans if he loses this fight.
Lomachenko is basically a pumped-up featherweight, and he’s going to be at a massive size disadvantage against Haney, who some feel should be fighting at 147 at this stage in his career.
If you saw how much bigger Haney was than WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford recently, it’s clear that he should be campaigning at 147.
Why is Haney choosing to boil down to 135 to fight against smaller opposition? The answer is obvious. He can still get away with it due to his youth, and boxing no longer has same-day weigh-ins.
If Haney was forced to fight in a weight class that is ideal for his body frame, his career would likely implode because he has no power, and he’d be food for welterweights like Jaron Ennis, Errol Spence, Crawford, Vergil Ortiz, and Eimantas Stanionis.
Haney vs. Lomachenko “legacy fight”
“Obviously, I’m not at 135 right now, so I’ve got to do the weight cut and see, but I’m up for it and excited for it,” said Devin Haney to iD Boxing on how will it be for him to continue to fight at 135.
“It takes sacrifice to make the weight, but I’m willing to do it. This is legacy for me, this is another legacy fight,” Haney continued about his May 20th fight against Vasyl Lomachenko.
“This is one that I don’t have to take, but I want to take because I want to prove to the world. This is a fighter I’ve been calling out for many, many years, and now I got the chance to show what I would have done back then and what I’ll do now.
“My main focus is Loma right now. We’re still ironing out the deal to make the fight happen, and it’s only big fights. All my fights will be big from this point on. I want to fight the top guys, the biggest names.
Devin interested in Shakur Stevenson next
“Yes, that’s definitely a fight I’ll be interested in once I get past Loma,” said Haney when asked if he’d be interested in fighting Shakur Stevenson.
“Styles make fights. We just have to see,” Devin said when asked about his thoughts on the Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez fight.
“I don’t know. I haven’t watched too much of Josh Taylor, to be honest. I might have seen a bit of the Regis [Prograis] fight, but not too much, to be honest.
“Yeah, I think it’ll happen. It should be close to happening. He needs to iron out some things, but hopefully, he does,” said Haney when asked if he thinks we’ll see the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia fight.
“The odds are stacked against Tank in that fight, but he has experience, and he’s proven more than Ryan, so we got to see,” said Haney.