Former three-division world champion Jorge Linares says he’s aware that WBC lightweight belt-holder Devin Haney has been focusing on his power game for their fight this Saturday night on May 29th on DAZN.
A win for Linares over Haney would be a huge plus for his career, and it would be absolutely devastating to Matchroom Boxing.
They’re trying to turn Haney into a star, and they’re facing a daunting task due to his lack of power and finesse-oriented style of fighting.
Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) thinks that Haney (25-0, 15 KOs) has it in his head that he’s going to knock him out, which he feels will be a big mistake if he tries to do that.
For Haney to take that approach to this fight, it would be playing into Linares’ hands, as he’s an excellent puncher with elite-level hand speed.
Unfortunately, Haney, 22, hasn’t developed the kind of punching power that would worry a fighter like Linares, who has mainly been stopped by excellent punchers during his long 19-year professional career.
The one exception in which Linares was stopped by a non-puncher was in May 2018 when Vasily Lomachenko put him down for the count with a vicious body shot in the 10th round.
Haney will be defending his WBC lightweight title against the 35-year-old Linares this Saturday night in the headliner at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“[Haney’s] trying to train more physical than he’s been because I think he wants to make a KO very soon, very quickly in one or two rounds,” Linares said to DAZN News.
“If he thinks that, he’s going to do a very bad mistake with me because I train a lot and made different plans, different expectations for this fight,” said Linares.
It’s not surprising that Haney’s team has been putting their focus on trying to shoot for a knockout in this fight. After all, Linares has shown a weakness in getting hurt, all five of his losses were by knockout.
In other words, Linares has never lost a decision. However, Linares was struggling with the boxing skills of Linares in their fight three years ago.
Haney doesn’t possess the same boxing acuman that Lomachenko had going for him in 2018, so there’s less of a chance of him outboxing Linares in the same way.
“For me, the more important thing for this fight is stamina because I’m fighting with somebody who runs too much,” Linares says.
Linares brings up a good point about his conditioning being a key for this fight. If Linares runs out of gas in the championship rounds, Haney will be able to snatch the victory from him.
“Like the last fight he had with (Yuriorkis) Gamboa, he used all the ring. I need to be ready for that. I need to confront; I need to press him all the time.”
The Haney vs. Linares undercard for Saturday:
- Martin Joseph Ward vs. Azinga Fuzile
- Jason Quigley vs. Shane Mosley Jr
- Chantelle Cameron vs. Melissa Hernandez
- Reshat Mati vs. Ryan Pino
- Ramli Ali vs. Mikayla Nebel
- Khalil Coe vs. Nathaniel Tadd