A very thin and drawn-looking WBC lightweight champion Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney weighed in at 135 lbs on Friday’s weigh-in for his title defense against interim champion Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr. this Saturday night on DAZN at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Jojo Diaz Jr. (32-1-1, 15 KOs) weighed in at a solid-looking 134.4 lbs, showing no signs of being drained at the weight.
That is not that surprising given that this is only Diaz’s second fight at lightweight since moving up from the super featherweight division last July to fill in after Ryan Garcia pulled out of his main event fight against Javier Fortuna on DAZN at the Banc of California Stadium.
Devin (26-0, 15 KOs) will be making his fourth defense of his WBC title that he was upgraded to by the World Boxing Council in 2019.
This fight is equally important for both Haney and Jojo Diaz Jr, as the winner could be selected by undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. to face him in early 2022 in Australia in a stadium fight.
Kambosos Jr. claims that 80,000 fans will show up for his fight in Australia, but he has no way of knowing whether that size of a crowd will attend his next fight, but it sounds good him saying that.
Haney vs. Diaz Jr. undercard weights:
Jessica McCaskill 146.4 vs. Kandi Wyatt 146.2
Filip Hrgovic 246.8 vs. Emir Ahmatovic 228.4
Montana Love 143.8 vs. Carlos Diaz 139.8
Marc Castro 136.4 vs. Ronaldo Solis 130.8
Austin Williams 160 vs. Quatavious Cash 160
Alexis Espino 167.4 vs. Rodolfo Gomez Jr 168
Amari Jones 160 vs. Timothy Lee 159.4
Ricardo Sandoval 111.8 vs. Carlos Buitrago 113
“I have options too. Listen to this. I can go explore a Ryan Garcia fight and probably make more money [than fighting George Kambosos],” said Devin Haney to Fight Hub TV.
“I can score a Gervonta Davis fight and make more money. Even in the Teofimo fight, I will make more money, but I want the belts.
“It’s not just about the money. I want to be undisputed, but it all starts on December 4th,” said Haney.
“He’s going to get caught,” said Haney about Jojo Diaz. “You know what I want him to do?
“I want him to go in there and run right at me,” Devin said of what he’s hoping Joseph Diaz Jr. will try on Saturday night. “Do the Teo s***. Go in there and run at me and we’re going to see how that works out for him.
“He’s talking that bull s***. He’s talking about how he’s going to take it to me and ‘I’m going to dog him.’ Alright.
“I don’t know if that’s his game plan or not but if that’s his game plan and that’s what he has to offer,” Haney shakes his head as if to say, ‘It’s not going to work.’
“They can say what they want to say, but the people don’t agree with it,” said Haney in reacting to the World Boxing Council calling George Kambosos Jr. the Undisputed lightweight world champion after his win over Teofimo Lopez last Saturday.
“It’s not undisputed. The world is disputing it, so what can we say. They [WBC] can say what they want to say, but we keep disputing it, so let’s make it happen for all the belts and there won’t be any dispute after that,” said Haney in making the argument that HE should be the one that faces Kambosos next to settle the undisputed argument.
“The winner will be the winner and there won’t be no more dispute. I can’t give these guys elite with the level of competition. I feel like they’ve got to fight each other to prove who’s really elite. It’s really hard to tell who’s elite and who’s not,” said Haney.