Devin Haney, the undisputed lightweight world champion, who holds all four world titles, will look to make his second defense of the undisputed title as he faces future hall-of-famer, Vasiliy Lomachenko, a three-division world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, on May 20th, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fight stands as two different fighters who got to the same place in the sport. Lomachenko, who won a world title in three fights, and Haney, who built himself up from the ground up - to get the place where could create his business endeavors as well as career inside the ring. In many ways, Haney and Lomachenko are more similar than different making both journeys so interesting.
“Different routes for different people,” said Devin Haney during a recent media scrum. “[I am] not saying that his route was better or my route was better or whatever the case may be. We both made it to this point to both to be fighting for undisputed. So you know, respect to him respect to my route as well. It just shows you different routes can still lead you to the ultimate goal of being where we're where we are.
Despite being for all the world titles in the division it is hard to not see that the fight is being a bit overshadowed by the popularity of Gervonta Davis versus Ryan Garcia. As the two lightweight fighters, Davis and Garcia, will fight next week - April 22nd, at a catchweight of 136-lbs, on pay-per-view. Despite no widely regarded world title, the Davis and Garcia prizefight is getting all the attention and even with Devin Haney making his debut on pay-per-view as headliner, the historical significances of the fight seems a bit muted, compared to others in the division.
The marketing of the fight so far has been a chess board. A symbol to denote that both fighters take a thinking man’s approach to boxing. Lomachenko, one of the greatest amateurs, if not the greatest amateur, and Haney a fighter, who has made all of his major fights look fairly easy. The ease in which Haney has made his fights look have given him a label he wishes to shed ‘boring’. This fight will be a chance for Haney to display his fight IQ against a fighter widely regarded as one of the smartest the sport has ever seen.
“I think my [boxing] IQ is better,” furthered Haney. “I don't look to match him IQ for IQ, because I [would] like to show them IQ is better than his. I [came from] a different school. You know, I respect the school he comes from and notice that you know, his amateur pedigree but I come from a different [school]. Floyd Mayweather school, my dad school of boxing, many different great trainers, Virgil Hunter, Eddie Mustafa, you know, so many great trainers, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd senior.
