Devin Haney: I Gave Khan All he Could Handle and More!!
Whenever speaking in the public light, it is always a good idea to watch what you’re saying because you never know who is listening. Or how they will react! This was a lesson recently relearned by former super lightweight champion Amir “King” Khan (34-5, 21 KO’s).
During an exclusive interview with Fight Hype, Khan made a number of observations about WBC world lightweight champion in recess Devin “The Dream” Haney (24-0, 15 KO’s) that somewhat raised the young champions hackles.
For the better part of it, Khan extended a great deal of praise toward Haney. He even insisted that the young man has a bright future in the sport. However, while discussing a sparring session that they shared, Khan spoke about his having to take it easy on the new champion. Upon hearing this, the Dream was quick to highlight what he says is a complete fallacy.
CLEARING THE AIR
In an effort to clear the air, Haney submitted to his own exclusive interview with Fight Hype. Similar to Amir Khan, Haney also gave Khan a great deal of credit. The Dream acknowledged that Khan was a great fighter with impressive skills.
However, when it comes to the notion of King Khan being too big and strong to fight without reservation, Haney insists that nothing could be further from the truth. According to him, not only did Khan have to pull out all the stops, he was specially recruited for the training camp by Khan’s own trainer Vergil Hunter.
“He did say a lot of good things, but what I didn’t like is that he said he had to take it easy on me, which was not the case at all. I went in there and I gave it my all and he gave it his all and we had some great work. I feel like my sparring helped prepare him for the [Terence] Crawford fight. But when he said he took it easy, that wasn’t true at all.”
“I’m real close with Vergil Hunter, they felt like they needed me in camp…so Verg told me pretty much the truth that they needed me and to come back to work because I was giving him all he could handle and more.”
Yet, even though Haney is adamant that he left Khan with his hands full he was careful not to lay it on too thick himself.
“I mean when you are sparring somebody of his caliber, you have to bring you’re A-game, of course. Because he is going to bring his A-game with someone of my caliber as well. We both want to get the best of the work.”
By: Bakari Simpson
