Devin Haney Leaves Room To Entertain a Shakur Stevenson Fight Next
When two-division champion “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson (20-0, 10 KO’s), now competing at lightweight, was last in the ring, he put on a splendid performance. In that match, he outmaneuvered, routinely pummeled and systematically dismantled Shuichiro Yoshino en route to a sixth round stoppage. In the aftermath of the one-sided victory, Stevenson was quick to call out undisputed lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (29-0, 15 KO’s).
The two have been long-time associates and friends as they’ve remained in close proximity to one another throughout their development in the amateurs. Despite their chummy nature however, an official fight between them has always been an interesting showdown. While they both seem open to a match, Fearless has always appeared the more gung-ho fighter itching to jump in the ring.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
At the present moment, Haney has one of the biggest fights of his career swiftly approaching on May 20. On that date, the champion will defend his quartet of belts versus dynamic three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko. While victory is no foregone conclusion, the bigger and younger Haney is the favorite going into this duel. Assuming that he comes out victorious, as he recently told to Boxing Social, there is no guarantee Haney will be thinking about Stevenson.
“Of course [there is] no animosity, this is part of the fight game. We’re supposed to call each other out, the best supposed to be fighting the best, so that’s a good thing that he [Stevenson] called me out and maybe we can make the fight happen next. We just have to see how it goes on May 20 and how I feel.”
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
Critics will say that The Dream is being purposefully evasive and noncommittal on the subject. While cooler heads will suggest he is only being practical. Perhaps he injures himself during the Loma prizefight or the contest is so narrowly won that it demands a rematch. More concretely, Haney has openly suggested a fight with Ryan Garcia next. That bout could potentially be at 140 as both fighters have hinted at moving to 140 soon. Said to say, he is just giving himself wiggle room for the unforeseen.
In any case, again, it’s very encouraging that Haney is happy about the callout and saying that he is open to doing it next. So, as The Dream said himself, we’ll just have to wait and see how the fisticuffs resolve themselves on May 20. Thankfully, no matter what happens 3Kings Boxing will be here to debrief all the carnage!
