WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney says IBF/WBA/WBO champion Teofimo Lopez has verbally agreed to fight him after one more fight for the undisputed 135-lb championship.
Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) will likely fight Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr. on December 3rd, while Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) will take care of his IBF mandatory George Kambosos Jr. (19-0, 10 KOs) on November 27th.
Teofimo Sr. told Haney’s promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, that he’d like to have his son fight Devin at 140-pounds.
However, Hearn made it clear that he wants the Teofimo vs. Haney fight to take place at 135 because it would be for the undisputed championship.
Teofimo Sr. has agreed to make the fight between his son and Haney, and he says he’ll speak to promoter Bob Arum of Top rank to get him to agree to it. We’ll see if Arum agrees to the fight.
Devin says Teofimo fight will happen
“He said after his fight with [George] Kambosos, he’s going to make the fight, and after my fight with ‘Jojo’ Diaz, we’re going to make the fight happen,” said Devin Haney to iFL TV on a match between him and Teofimo to take place in early 2022.
“That’s pretty much it,” said Haney about his verbal clash with Teofimo during last Saturday’s Mikey Garcia vs. Sandor Martin card in Fresno, California.
“He was doing a lot of chest-beating and growling and all that, but that s*** don’t really matter. When somebody starts doing all that, you know they’re trying to hype themselves up. There was a lot of aggression in his voice because, like I said, they got to hype themselves up.
“We’ll see. The main thing is we’re going to make the fight happen after our fights, and we’re going to make for the undisputed for all the belts, and that’s all that matters,” said Haney of him and Teofimo.
We haven’t heard from Teofimo’s promoters at Top Rank about whether they’re on board with him fighting Haney in early 2022.
I don’t know why Top Rank would sign off on a fight between Haney and Teofimo because it’s potentially going to mess up an in-house match between Teo and undisputed 140-lb champion Josh Taylor in April 2022.
If Teofimo fights Haney next February, it’s going to make it next to impossible for him to fight Taylor in April.
Haney is confident Jojo Diaz fight will happen
“I’m very confident that fight is going to happen,” Haney said when asked about a fight between him and Jojo Diaz. “He’s got to accept the offer. He can’t overprice himself. That’s a new way of ducking.
“If he doesn’t accept the offer, which is the same thing that he took from Ryan Garcia, then we all know what it is.
“Right now, my main focus is Jojo Diaz, and that’s a fight that I want to make happen. I’m confident it’s going to happen, and that’s really the main thing. I’m very confident,” said Haney.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn revealed on Saturday that he offered Jojo Diaz Jr. the same money he would get for his November 27th fight with Ryan Garcia. So they’re now waiting to see if he accepts.
The only reason Jojo Diaz wouldn’t agree to the deal is if his promoters at Golden Boy ask him to sit and wait until Ryan’s injured wrist heals up so that they can reschedule their fight for early 2o22.
Devin says Mikey Garcia will bounce back
“It was a tough loss,” said Haney in reacting to Mikey Garcia’s defeat at the hands of Sandor Martin. “I mean, we all seen and we weren’t surprised was said or whatever. I think he can bounce back.
“I think just the long layoff, the ring rust really took advantage in the fight, and Martin came to fight.
“He didn’t come to fight, he came to win, and it just showed. That’s what he did,” said Haney.
It’s possible that the former four-division world champion Mikey Garcia (40-2, 30 KOs) can rebound from his loss, but not likely.
The 33-year-old made a lot of money, and he doesn’t seem motivated to stay active at this stage in his career.
That’s one of the problems that will prevent Mikey from rebounding from his loss to Sandor Martin (39-2, 13 KOs) last Saturday night in Fresno, California.
The other thing that will prevent Mikey from coming back to find success is that he’s insisting on fighting at 140, a weight class that he’s too small to compete in.
If Mikey chooses to stay at 140, he’ll continue to lose when fighting quality opposition or even against level fighters, as we saw in his loss to #12 WBO Sandor.
Mikey needs to lose weight, go back down to 130 or 126, and fight four times a year. He’s not going to do that, so his career is over.
It would be too much of a shock to Mikey’s comfortable lifestyle for him to drop back down to 126 or 130, and stay active with his career.
Mikey is conducting his career in the same way Oscar De La Hoya did at the end by fighting irregularly and competing in weight classes that his body can’t sustain.
If Mikey was a disciplined fighter like Vasily Lomachenko, he could pull it off, and find success at featherweight or super featherweight. I don’t think it’s going to happen.
“That’s a good fight,” said Haney on the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero fight for December 5th.
“We all know what Rolly is. We all act like we don’t know what he is, but we all know what he really is, and it’s going to show in that fight.
“Of course, that’s what it’s about. You’ve got to fight the best if you want to be mentioned with the greats and remembered forever, then you’ve got to put your name in the books and beat top fighters, and people who people think are good fighters. That’s what I want to do,” said Haney.
Devin shouldn’t sell Rolly Romero short because he’s got the power to give Tank Davis problems in their fight in December.
Haney is the better boxer and will out-point Lopez. Lopez’s only shot is a KO. Which is not likely to happen.
Devin is gone smash slow feet Lopez his arm reach is less and he won’t be able to land a solid punch on Dev it won’t be like linares Devin was in there proving a point that he can trade but for all the belts he’s gone take him to boxing school you watch
Devin got lucky cause he almost got knocked out by linares
I think Haney and Lopez will be a very interesting match up. It wasn’t that long ago that Jorge Linares floored Vasiliy Lomachenko, before being tko’d with a shot to the liver. Recently, we’ve seen Devin Haney go up against Linares and win a unanimous decision because of his superior boxing skills. We saw that Jorge Linares is still a very dangerous fighter because he hurt Haney in that fight. I really like Devin Haney because he is willing to take on anyone who will get into the ring with him!
On the other hand, Lopez has power but not as much as Linares because he never put Lomachenko down as Linares did. I also believe, eventhough Lopez did a great job against Lomachenko, that if Lomachenko had been more aggressive ,from the first round on ,that he could have definitely won that fight. As it turned out , Lomachenko wasn’t concerned in those early rounds because I’m sure he was planning to score a knockout in the later rounds . Bottom line: I think Haney is the better boxer and will win a decision over Lopez; but ,if Lopez wins , it will have to be by knockout.
Lopez I’d gun smash that fool ,he just bought himself an ass whoopin!!
Teofimo gun smash that fool ,!he just bought himself an ass whoopin!!!
The Haneys doing a lot of fake call out but ended up fighting bums like old midget Gamboa and Lineres
to me HANEY’s buddy was doing a lot of lip work instead of HANEY. DEVIN was on the side beating his in chest cus he can’t do his own talking.