By Sean Jones: Tim Bradley says he’s leaning towards Devin Haney successfully defending his undisputed lightweight championship this Saturday night in the second defense of his four 135-lb belts against Vasily Lomachenko. Haney-Lomachenko will be shown live on ESPN pay-per-view & Sky Sports.
Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) is still a question mark as a champion because his only victories in 2022 came against George Kambosos Jr, who some felt was a briefly accidental champion after his win over an injured, weight-drained and not mentally present Teofimo Lopez in November 2021.
In the chief support bout, the dangerous puncher Junto Nakatani (24-0, 18 KOs) fights #2 Andrew Moloney (25-2, 16 KOs) for the vacant WBO super flyweight title in a 12 round bout. This fight could prove every bit as good as the main event, if not better.
Nakatani, 25, is a huge puncher, and he’s going up against the experienced, clever boxer Moloneey, who suffered his only two career defeats against the talented Joshua Franco.
Haney-Lomachenko cardÂ
- Devin Haney vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko
- Juno Nakatani vs. Andrew Maloney
- Raymond Muratalla vs. Jeremia Nakathila
- Oscar Valdez vs. Adam Lopez
- Floyd Diaz vs. Luis Saavedra
- Nico Ali Walsh vs. Danny Rosenberger
- Abdullah Mason vs. Desmond Lyons
- Amari Jones vs. Pachino Hill
- Emiliano Vargas vs. Rafael Jasso
Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) is a much more difficult test for the young 24-year-old Haney than the hapless Kambosos Jr was, and there’s a better-than-average possibility that he could lose, even with a 15-to-20 lb weight advantage on Saturday night.
“I lean slightly towards Haney,” said Tim Bradley to K.O. Artist Sports when asked for his prediction on this Saturday’s fight between undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney and Vasily Lomachenko on ESPN PPV in Las Vegas.
We don’t know how the strain of getting down from 160 to 135 will affect Haney. He’s already taken off a lot of weight during training camp, stripping off valuable muscle to get down close enough to drain the rest in water to reach the 135-lb limit for Friday’s weigh-in.
Assuming Haney isn’t a pure zombie after making weight, will Lomachenko, who should arguably be campaigning at 126, deal with a fighter with a gigantic size advantage over him?
It’s believed that Lomachenko will rehydrate to 138, whereas Haney could be around 155 on the night. That’s a 17-lb weight advantage for Devin, and he can use that by clinching constantly & leaning on the smaller Lomachenko to tire him.
Hany’s size advantage will only work for him if he can use it to lean on Lomachenko each time he initiates one of his many tie-ups during the fight.
