By Jack Tiernan: Devin Haney shutdown questions today when whether he’ll stay at 135 to defend against the killers Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis after the title defense of his four-belt lightweight championship against ‘The Matrix’ Vasyl Lomachenko on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) appeared as if he had already rehearsed his answers to the Tank Davis & Shakur questions ahead of time, as he spoke as if he was giving a speech to the media.
Hiding his eyes behind yellow-tinted sunglasses, it was clear from watching Haney talk that he wasn’t comfortable being asked about Shakur and Gervonta because it was like he was squirming.
Haney might be considering going after a softer target by trying Ryan Garcia or Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero because those big-money fights would present little risk. Those two are social media fighters, who have large followings but lack the ring talent to beat A-level opposition.
“I’m not focused on those fights right now. My main focus is on Loma and being victorious, and then we can go from there. After Saturday night when I’m victorious, I’ll tell you what’s next and how I felt and everything like that,” said Devin Haney to the media today when asked if he’ll stay at 135 to fight Shakur Stevenson or Gervonta Davis if he defeats Vasyl Lomachenko on Saturday night.
“My main focus is Lomachenko. That’s the only person I see, and that’s all I’ve been watching and studying for this eight-week training camp. For the nine weeks that we signed for the fight and whatever, I knew I’d fight him. I’ve been training for months.
“I feel great. I pushed myself for this camp. I was a lot more disciplined with me, and my chef was there. The weight is what bothered me the last time just because I didn’t have my chef for my whole training camp. I pushed myself.
“My focus is going in there and putting on the best performance that I can, and being as dominant as I can. I’m going to let the judges do their job, and I’m going to do my job and come out with the W.
“Every fighter you pick up experience. With him being a southpaw and as tricky as he is and having skills, you can definitely pick up experience and some new tricks and use them against other guys.
“Like I said, I’ve got to gain experience, be victorious and get past Loma, and then we’ll see what’s next,” said Haney.
The way that Haney repeated his answers over & over suggests that he only rehearsed a small portion of his speech to give to the media. Once he ran out of material, he started his speech again.
