When Shakur Stevenson fought on April 8th on ESPN, Bill Haney, Devin Haney’s father sent a text message that alluded to Haney staying at lightweight after his upcoming pay-per-view fight with Vasiliy Lomachenko on May 20th, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Now it appears a few weeks out from that fight things have slightly changed, as it appears Haney believes that the junior welterweight division is in his future unless one thing happens - he lands either a Shakur Stevenson fight or Gervonta Davis fight. Outside of those two fighters, Haney seems to be done with the division after facing Lomachenko.
The massive lightweight, who looks to be as big as some current welterweights are, but through discipline and lifestyle choices can still make the lightweight limit of 135 lbs, might be wanting a change unless Haney can secure a legacy fight. Many forget that Haney started at a lightweight and at the end of his amateur career fought bouts at a lightweight, meaning he has been at this weight class for a very long time.
"I don't plan to be here much longer,” continued Haney, who defeated George Kambosos Jnr twice last year to become the undisputed lightweight world champion. “I've been at 135 since I was 16 years old, My body has been maturing. I've been saying this for a long time."
After Shakur Stevenson stopped Shuichiro Yoshino, Stevenson took to the ESPN airwaves to call out Devin Haney. Haney took it in stride as he was not offended by the challenge by Stevenson. Now the question remains - what will happen on May 20th, and even more so, what will the world title picture at lightweight look like on May 21st?
“I'm the champion with all the belts, that's what he was supposed to say," Haney said. "There were times where I wanted someone to challenge me, where I wanted someone to fight me. So when a guy says he wants to fight me, I can't get mad about it."
