By Dan Ambrose: Devin Haney has denied that he extended his contract with Top Rank, and he even took a shot at promoter Bob Arum in reaction to him saying that Vasyl Lomachenko easily won their fight last Saturday night
Paulie Malignaggi said yesterday that he’d learned that Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) has re-signed with Top Rank two nights before last Saturday’s night against Lomachenko, which some boxing fans believe is the reason the judges gave him a controversial 12 round unanimous decision victory.
On Twitter, Haney referred to the venerable Bob Arum as “old a**,” which indicates that he’s not happy that he told Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas that Lomaa had easily won the fight.
As such, if Haney isn’t going to re-up with Top Rank, it’s anyone’s guess which promoter he’ll sign with. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t sound eager when he was asked about potentially re-signing him to his company.
Hearn said Haney was “very expensive” now, but if he did bring him back, he would want him to fight WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis or WBA belt holder Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero.
Of the two, Hearn thought it would be best to match Haney against Rolly, which isn’t exactly a vote of confidence in him. He also said that he didn’t think it would be a good idea to match Haney against Shakur Stevenson because it would be a risky fight for him.
Lomachenko let off in the 12th
“There were two rounds that weren’t close, the tenth and the eleventh. Those were big rounds,” said Teddy Atlas on The Fight, talking about the Haney vs. Lomachenko contest. “Lomachenko was coming on in the later rounds.
Absolutely not https://t.co/7C9bolo3Gj
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) May 23, 2023
Bob old ass was sleep all fight.. I took a look at him between rounds 😴
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) May 23, 2023
https://t.co/DWnKQsvlEk pic.twitter.com/iEHSWgedqb
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) May 23, 2023
“At the end, Haney behaved like a champion. He went out and won the 12th round.
“I thought that was the highlight of the fight. Haney coming back afteer getting battered for two rounds,” said Ken Rideout.
“I don’t have a problem if you want to say Haney won 115-113, or it could have been close. I have a problem that two of the rounds in the fight that weren’t close, that Dave Moretti gives the tenth round, the round that wasn’t close [to Haney,” said Atlas.
“Loma let up in the 11th round when he could have put a clamp on the fight. He let off the gas, and I thought to myself, ‘He’s going to be sorry for this, maybe.’ He had all the momentum, and he gave up the momentum a little bit.
“He knows more than me. He’s the one in the 35-year-old body. Maybe at 35 and with the accomplishments of his life with the 400 amateur fights and two gold medals, maybe in the 11th round, maybe he knew he couldn’t.
“The bottom line is he let up, and I think he lost his momentum,” Atlas said about Lomachenko. “In the twelfth round where I said to myself, if he’s really going to put his stamp on this fight and grab this fight and put his hands around the throat, he’s going to have to do what he did in the last two rounds. Win the last round, and he didn’t.
“He lost some of the momentum in the 11th [in the last 40 seconds], and he didn’t get it back, but he didn’t win the twelfth. Haney won the twelfth. I felt that he should have won the twelfth. He shouldn’t have let up and in the eleventh, and I was wondering, Is that going to hurt him? It can’t help him. It’s a tight fight.’
“I will say that I felt that with the flow of the fight, with the way Lomaa was coming on late, I felt that I was going to hear the ring announcer say, ‘And the new.’ I just felt that it was moving in that direction, but I also felt that some of that movement was stymied by that twelfth round,” said Atlas.
