Bill Haney Discloses Who Would Be Devin Haney’s Toughest Opponent
Bill Haney, father/trainer of WBC World Lightweight champion Devin Haney (24-0, 15 KOs), made an appearance on the Barbershop Conversations YouTube show to discuss a variety of topics.
He initially joined the show to push back against accusations made by WBC world Featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr (31-1, 18 KOs) that his son was avoiding a fight against him. However, the topic eventually took a turn to fighters within the lightweight division.
Asked by a caller who at 135-pounds would provide Devin the most difficult test and why, Haney Sr’s answer was quite interesting.
“Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs), a tall southpaw. I think Luke Campbell is good enough as a boxer and Devin is a boxer. Luke Campbell is long, so that nullifies Devin’s reach. But he’s a southpaw and that makes him awkward.
I don’t think Gary (Russell) is because we have the advantages with Gary. We have the advantages with Gary, we have the advantages with Tank (Davis), we got the advantages with (Vasily) Lomachenko, we got the advantages with Teofimo Lopez.”
Bill Haney went on to say that Russell is fast but too short, Lopez relies mostly on his right hand, and that Lomachenko is weak on the inside. However, Campbell is similar to Devin Haney in both height and reach. Therefore, Haney feels the 32-year-old from Yorkshire, England may pose some problems.
Now the question begs could we see a Haney – Campbell fight down the road? Possibly. Campbell is currently in negotiations to fight Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) while Haney is in negotiations to fight former featherweight and junior lightweight world titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-3, 18 KOs).
On July 4, the World Boxing Council proposed a WBC Lightweight tournament that features both Haney and Campbell. So wins by both men in each of their upcoming bouts could lead to a tussle between the two.
The feeling that Campbell would be the most difficult fight for Devin Haney over the likes of “Tank” Davis, Teofimo Lopez, and especially someone as highly regarded as Vasiliy Lomachenko, will be viewed as a controversial statement to many.
Of course, this is all hypothetical and speculation. You never know until we see these fighters step into the ring with each other. However, no one knows Devin Haney like the man who raised him in and outside of the ring. And as the old boxing adage says, styles make fights, so the dad could very well have a point.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
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