Winning a fight you’re not supposed to is absolutely the best feeling you can get in the sport.
Everybody knows about me training Ricky Hatton to beat Kostya Tszyu and Michael Gomez to stop Alex Arthur but I’m not just talking about big title fights. I remember taking a fighter called Mark Haslam to box one of Brendan Ingle’s kids, called Thomas Bradley. Bradley had a good reputation. Nobody apart from me knew about Mark; he was my favourite. I was friends with Naseem Hamed and we used to joke around. When I turned up, Naz said, “Who have you got on tonight?” I told him we were fighting one of his gym mates. Naz laughed and said, “Well he’s getting knocked out”. Mark was beautiful that night and knocked Thomas out. Naz was devastated. I just said, “Told you so”.
Peter Judson beat a fighter called Sugar Gibiliru in his hometown. Gibiliru had just lost his British title but I knew Peter would win as soon as I was offered the fight, and Steve Foster beat Chris Pyatt. Those are just a few that stick out – there are way more than that and winning fights I wasn’t supposed to made my reputation. There’s nothing better than proving everybody wrong.
This is why this weekend will still mean the absolute world to Vasyl Lomachenko, despite everything he has already achieved. I had no idea there were so few people giving him a chance to beat Devin Haney. I can see why that’s the case though, and if I’m honest, if I had to put my house on it I’d pick Haney myself.
I think Lomachenko’s decision to box at lightweight means we’re being robbed of one of the greatest careers in boxing history.
He isn’t a modern lightweight. He is voluntarily evening the playing field. He looks minuscule compared to the other lightweights but he’s there because he wants a challenge. Lots of fighters say they want the toughest challenges but Lomachenko is the real deal. He’s something of a rarity – he’s an honest fighter. That’s not to slag off other fighters – it’s just the business they’re in – but Lomachenko truly means what he says.
If Lomachenko were at super featherweight, I think he’d be almost unbeatable and producing masterclass after masterclass. To take it even further – and I’m letting my imagination wander here – can you imagine if he’d turned professional as a younger man? Just picture him as a 22 year old super bantamweight and progressing naturally to super feather. Fuck me. I honestly think he could have gone down as one of the greatest ever.
Haney is a beautiful boxer. I love watching him. He can punch a bit and he’s good. In fact, he’s really good. He’s young, too. I don’t begrudge any fighter any success but I can’t lie, the thought of him beating a tiny, 35 year old Lomachenko and being hailed a modern great is pissing me off and I’d feel the same about any lightweight beating him.
Look, if Haney wins it’s because he’s so much bigger and younger. If they were the same age and size we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. It’d be a shut out for Lomachenko.
Haney won’t be bringing anything at all that Lomachenko hasn’t seen before. He’s been fighting his whole life and as an amateur he’ll have come up against every single style and had to solve it within three rounds. What he’s done as a professional is incredible. I’ve been watching boxing all my life and he does things I’ve never seen. He’s a magician. Look at that reach, though, and when they’re in close he’ll be pushing up against a real big lump who’ll be able to hold him.
This isn’t all purely down to Lomachenko being small; Haney is also a giant lightweight. Haney may well go on to be a great himself but it won’t be at 135lbs. He will have to move up. You can make any weight you want to if you know what you’re doing but you are fucking yourself up. You can get away with it for so long but there is always one night when it all catches up with you. One night when the man you’re fighting can exploit you.
It’s like these guys are having two fights these days. Making the weight and then the fight itself. Look how they celebrate when the scales balance. It’s fucking ridiculous.
Haney might get away with it this time because Lomachenko is so much smaller. If things I’ve heard are true and Haney really does get in the ring weighing almost as much as a middleweight, I hope for his legacy and status he moves up after this fight. He’s in a murderous division. As much as we’re being deprived of seeing Lomachenko at his absolute best, we also won’t get to see the best of Haney until he isn’t killing himself.
I’m certainly not an old-fashioned coach – I did a lot of things first if I do say so myself – and the day before weigh-ins benefitted me because I knew how to exploit them, but I did warn people that it’d become a problem.
Boxing trainers have always been too extreme, either way. They’ve learned how to get their fighter to a weight so, as usual, they’ve taken it to the extreme. “Sugar” Ray Robinson was at his best as a welterweight but these days they’d have him down at lightweight.
I pick Haney to win because of his size, weight and Lomachenko being 35, but if there’s one person capable of pulling this out of the bag – especially if Haney is weight-weakened – it’s Lomachenko.
I’m really glad to be back talking about boxing but sort of sorry that this is my first column. It’s been a difficult one because there are so many ifs and buts and we’re talking about factors other than the actual fight.
I like to joke that I’m one of Salford’s finest liars. There have been times in my life when I’ve had to lie to get myself out of situations but I don’t lie about boxing. I never lied to my own fighters and I don’t lie in my columns. You can expect the truth from me. It’s very thin on the ground in boxing these days and the real fans are sick of hearing lies.
