Eddie Hearn says Devin Haney versus Jorge Linares will likely take place on May 15
Despite being the WBC World Lightweight champion, in many ways Devin “The Dream” Haney (25-0, 15 KO’s) is still searching for validation. Sure, he and his team believe in his talent and future potential, but he is still lacking that marquee win over a well-respected fighter. At the moment, all signs indicate that he will next go to battle with Jorge “El Nino de Oro” Linares (47-5, 29 KO’s). The two teams have been in regular talks and everything appears to be going smoothly.
In fact, after listening to Haney’s Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, it sounds like the fight could have been done already if not for a last minute Hail Mary. The Dream and Linares were even engaged in a brief scuffle via social media.
However, if given their choice, Team Haney would greatly prefer a prizefight with former world champion Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko. The Dream has craved a bout with Lomachenko for quite some time.
At one point, when Hi-Tech was the WBC Lightweight champion, Haney was his mandatory challenger. Unfortunately, before this meaningful dustup could take place, Lomachenko petitioned for the WBC “Franchise champion” belt. Hi-Tech was awarded the concept trinket and relinquished the actual WBC world lightweight title which Haney then assumed control over.
ONE IN HAND AND ONE IN THE BUSH
In a recent interview with Fight Hype, promoter Eddie Hearn spoke about the matter in a bit more detail.
“I mean look, it took a bit of a U-turn because Lomachenko popped up and Bill Haney phoned me and said make the Lomachenko fight. So I actually spoke to Egis Klimas, not to make him an offer or anything like that, but just to say, ‘I think we’ll make an offer to Top Rank.’
“I’m happy to do that fight, that’s a fantastic fight and Devin is more than happy to fight Lomachenko. So if we can agree to terms, that would probably be a preferred fight to Linares. But if we can’t, Linares is pretty much agreed and ready to go.”
When needled on the subject, Hearn made it clear that he thinks that it will be the Linares bout that gets made.
“Yeah I saw Bob’s [Arum] interview last night where he said, ‘we wouldn’t do that fight on DAZN so we’ll wait until Devin Haney is a free agent.’ You’ll be waiting a long time.”
UNDEFEATED FATHER TIME
If the prizefight with Linares is made, it will still be a major name on Haney’s resume. On the one hand, Linares is a solid boxer who should provide a meaningful challenge. On the other hand however, he is a bit “long in the tooth” and has suffered five losses all by way of knockout. Combining those five knockouts with his almost twenty years of professional mileage in the sport, Haney would be the clear favorite. But this is boxing and in the end, anything can happen inside those ropes.
So for now we will have to sit back and see how it all plays out, yet smart money is on an impending Haney v Linares announcement.
By: Bakari Simpson
Be the first to comment