By Jim Calfa: Devin Haney could face a fine for giving Vasyl Lomachenko a hard shove during Friday’s weigh-in. Haney pushed the unsuspecting Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) with enough force to whiplash his head.
According to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, the Nevada State Athletic Commission will be filing a complaint to the attorney’s office, and the 24-year-old Haney could be fined.
Further, the NSAC will want a second physical exam of the 35-year-old Lomachenko for him to be “medically” re-cleared for him to compete tonight against the undisputed lightweight champion Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) as a precaution to ensure that he’s not injured from the shove at the weigh-in.
With Haney getting a guaranteed purse of $4 million and additional money from the PPV upside from his fight on ESPN pay-per-view, it would have to be a massive fine to impact him in his pocketbook.
Some boxing fans believe that Haney’s shove was a premeditated acct to create interest in his fight with Lomachenko tonight and increase the buy rate of PPVs on ESPN.
If this is something that Haney cooked up on his own without letting Lomachenko in on his plans, it was a risky thing to do because when a person is shoved as hard as Loma was, they can sustain whiplash injuries to their neck, which can potentially affect not only the fight but have a long-lasting impact on his career and life.
Anyone that has been involved in a serious car accident, they know that whiplash injuries are very serious.
Loma wasn’t prepared for the shove from Haney, as he wasn’t saying anything that would lead to Haney, without warning, shoving him.
The shoving that’s going on between fighters during press conferences and weigh-ins drum up more interest and increase the PPV buy rate is too risky.
Also, there’s the potential for the fighters to take it to another level by slapping, punching, kicking, head-butting, and biting their opponents to artificially attract interest from fans in their fights.
One way of nipping this new pattern from fighters in the bud would be to have huge fines levied. Perhaps an even better method to stop this behavior is to have either a plastic barrier between them or do away with face-offs entirely by keeping the fighters far apart.
“The NSAC is set to file a complaint with its attorney’s office for a disciplinary hearing at its next meeting,” said Mike Coppinger on Twitter.
“Devin Haney, who will earn $4 million guaranteed, will likely be fined for the shove of Loma.
The NSAC also ordered a physical exam of Loma to be re-cleared out of an abundance of caution.”
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