Devin Haney says he’s a “now and improved version” of himself heading into his fight against WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. in two weeks on November 22nd in Riyadh.
Lessons From Garcia, Loma & Linares
Haney (32-0, 16 KOs) states that he’s learned from his fights against Ryan Garcia, Vasily Lomachenko, and Jorge Linares. Those were three of the most brutal battles of Haney’s ten-year pro career. He’s still unbeaten going into his chief support bout against Norman Jr. (28-0, 22 KOs) on DAZN PPV at the ANB Arena.
Can Haney handle Norman’s power and pressure?
Those are things that fans want to find out about the former two-division world champion Haney. He’s facing the biggest puncher at 147, and coming off a performance in which he gave the impression that he was still dealing with mental remnants of his war with Ryan Garcia.
The pressure that Norman Jr. is going to be putting on Haney will be intense because that’s the way the Georgia native fights. He’s the type of fighter who wants to retaliate when he’s hit with anything, even jabs. So, Haney will have to move frequently and hold to neutralize Norman’s offense.
Studying Norman’s Habits
“We’ve been studying Norman. We know what he does well. We know what he does not do too well. It’s for me to go in there and exploit that and handicap what he does well. Just show the world that I am that guy on that next level,” said Devin Haney to Fighthype.
Norman is at his best when he’s at close range. He gets maximum torque on his shots and is lethal with either hand. His heavy muscles get in the way of him generating power on punches thrown from long range. That keeps Norman from taking advantage of his reach advantage in his fights.
“I can’t wait until November 22nd to show that I’m a much better Devin Haney than the Ryan fight. A much better Devin Haney than in the [Jose] Ramirez fight. I’m a much better fighter than I was in the Linares fight. I’m a new and improved version. Every fight, I want to get better and better,” said Haney.
Devin needs to be nervous about this fight because it’s one that could ruin his chances of getting a rematch with Ryan Garcia. If Haney gets knocked out or if he looks bad running from Norman Jr., it’s doubtful that Turki Alalshikh will want to put on the Garcia-Haney fight.
