By Craig Daly: Antonio Tarver says he thinks Devin Haney deserved his victory over Vasily Lomachenko, but he personally didn’t “see undisputed talent” coming from the lightweight champion last Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Tarver says the other fighters view Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) like a “piece of meat’ because he has so many holes in his game that they can take advantage of.
That said, Tarver still thinks Haney did enough to win against Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs), but it was a close enough fight that he feels a rematch is warranted.
Haney probably won’t give Lomachenko a rematch unless that’s his best option for a payday. The two fighters that Haney wants are Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia. Those won’t be easy fights to make for Haney, and his management won’t likely get either of those guys to fight him.
“Watching the fight from my vision, Haney got a lot of work to do,” said Antonio Tarver to Fight Hub TV about Devin Haney’s performance against Vasily Lomachenko. “He’s carrying that undisputed title. I personally didn’t see undisputed talent.
“Yes, I think it warrants a rematch, but if we see the same fight, we’ll see the same result,” said Tarver on the Haney-Lomachenko fight. “Somebody has got to show some separation. You’ve got to take this man’s title,” said Tarver, indicating that Lomachenko needs to dominate Haney to take his four titles.
“We can’t give you the undisputed title on that performance, sir. I’m sorry. That, you have to earn. You walked in as the challenger. There’s no way the belts can change hands on a performance like that. There was not enough domination.
“There was no knockdown. There were rounds won and rounds lost, and when you add those rounds up, it favored Haney by a little bit but that’s all it has to be by a little bit. Why are some people expected to do more than others?
“If I could win a close decision like Devin Haney, I would have one loss on my record right now. I had to avenge all my losses because they were political decisions.
“I understand why Haney isn’t a puncher because he doesn’t punch properly. I’m not trying to rain on anybody’s parade, but these young guys aren’t getting the lessons. When you look at the skill set [of Haney], there’s a lot of things missing.
“I don’t see no rhythm. I don’t see no timing. I don’t see no execution. That’s why people are looking at Devin like a piece of meat. There’s a lot of things missing from that fight, and that don’t say that he didn’t win the fight [against Lomachenko], but you’ve got to separate yourself, and I didn’t see no separation.
“What I didn’t like was seeing so many people that looked like Devin Haney raining on this young man’s parade. This is the hate culture. This is the hating-est culture I’ve ever seen.
“Nobody wants to help nobody, and nobody wants to work with nobody. It’s a shame. There’s a 90% Loma crowd. That was obvious. There was a lot of programming the night of the fight,” said Tarver about the TV analysts on ESPN that worked the fight.
“I heard more ‘Loma’ than I did during the whole week in the build-up. It was just to the point where it was so obvious. You didn’t hardly hear Devin Haney’s name from the perspective of what he was doing and how he was defending.
“He was fighting off Loma every time he came in and got hit with counters. But I would have liked Devin Haney to have been a lot better. When I break that fight down, I see a lot of holes. Sometimes, you have to accept constructive criticism, but I can’t give them the whole game,” said Tarver.
