Devin Haney says Teofimo Lopez will avoid him

By Tim Compton - 07/06/2021 - Comments

WBC lightweight champion Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) says Teofimo Lopez hoped that he would lose his last fight last May against Jorge Linares so that he wouldn’t have to fight him.

Haney, 22, believes that IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO 135-lb champion Teofimo won’t fight him, and he’ll come up with excuses not to have to face him.

Haney’s chances of getting a fight with the 24-year-old Teofimo are quite low indeed, and it’s almost useless to talk about the two of them battling it out.

Although Teofimo has been using Haney’s name for clout purposes to get boxing fans to pay attention to him, the reality is that he’s going to be leaving the 135-lb division after his next two fights.

Assuming he makes it through training camp without asking for more time, Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) will defend against George Kambosos Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) on the September 11th undercard of Oscar De La Hoya vs. Vitor Belfort on Triller pay-per-view.

Devin: Teofimo will make excuses

“He was hoping I lost to Linares,” said Devin Haney to AKHi TV about Teofimo Lopez. “He was sitting there with his fingers crossed.

Devin Haney says Teofimo Lopez will avoid him

“Deep down in his heart, he wanted me to lose. We see after he gets past Kambosos, he has different plans than to fight Devin Haney.

“He’s going to make every excuse in the book for the fight not to happen,” said Haney about Teofimo planning on dodging him.

Teofimo WON’T be fighting Haney at 135. The only way the welterweight-sized Teofimo will fight Haney is if Devin comes up to 140 to face him. Even then, it might not happen.

Teofimo won’t likely be staying at 140 for long before he needs to move up to 147 due to his huge size.

He’s a 160+ lb guy when he’s rehydrated, and that’s too much size for Teofimo to drain down consistently to compete in the 140-lb division.

Frankly, it’s a miracle that Teofimo has been able to drain down to 135 to compete in the lightweight division because he should be fighting at welterweight in the 147-lb division.

If you wonder why Teofimo has been gassing out in his fights at 135, it’s all the water weight that he’s forced to drop during the last two weeks before his contests.

The hallmark of a fighter that has outgrown a weight division is them gassing out early.

Haney says Tank Davis cherry-picked Barrios

“Why to skip a whole weight class?” said Haney about Gervonta Davis moving up to win an easy belt from WBA secondary 140-lb champion Mario Barrios.

Devin Haney says Teofimo Lopez will avoid him

“You’re not even a real 135-pounder. All the 135-pounders are bigger than you. So why to skip a weight class and go all the way up to 140 for a secondary belt?” said Haney about Gervonta choosing to skip the lightweight division to beat a flawed champion.

“Obviously because you saw that Barrios is food. He knows at 135 it’s smoke.

“Everybody heard what Floyd said. They’re only going to fight PBC and Mayweather Promotions fighters. We see what it is, and we just got to read between the lines,” Haney said about Gervonta being protected by his promoters.

“He’s not going to fight any real competition that is a threat to beating him. Barrios, no disrespect to him, but they built him up for that opportunity, that fight right there,” said Haney.

There’s no question that Gervonta Davis cherry-picked Mario Barrios to win an easy title at 140.

It’s purely academic at this point that it was a cherry-pick on Tank Davis and Mayweather Promotions’ part in selecting the little-known Barrios to fight.

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If Tank wanted to show that he was fearless, he would have taken on the undisputed 140-lb champion Josh Taylor for all four of his belts rather than the secondary WBA 140-lb champion Barrios.

Being a secondary champion is kind of like being an interim champion. In other words, you have a trinket title, a sublevel/basement type of belt.