Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney & his father, Bill, says that anyone in the 135-lb division that wants to be a champ in 2023 is going to have to go through him this year.
Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) intends on keeping his four belts through the entire year and then moving up to 140 in 2024. According to Bill, Devin might even choose to stay at lightweight in 2024 and continue to defend his belts.
It certainly makes sense for Haney to exhaust all efforts to stay at 135 for at least another year because that would give him the opportunity to clean out the division and make a lot of money in the process by fighting these fighters:
- Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis
- Shakur Stevenson
- Ryan Garcia
- Frank Martin
- Isaac Cruz
Haney leaving the division after his still unsigned title defense against Vasyl Lomachenko in May doesn’t make sense because there are even bigger fights that he could be involved in if he stays.
Right now, Haney still has his work cut out for him, defending against the former three-division world champion Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) on May 20th.
Haney is looking big, and it’s questionable whether he’ll make the 135-lb limit for the fight because he let himself put on a lot of size since his win over Geoge Kambosos Jr last October.
“The lightweight division is on hostage, and you’re looking at who got the key,” said trainer Bill Haney on social media about his son, undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney.
“It will be no dropping of no belts. The only man to defend the undisputed championship of the world. We’re on our second title defense. Everybody else dropped the belt. There will be no dropping any belts.
“The lightweight division. There’s only one guy that has got the key, and in order to get the key, y’all got to come take it because we ain’t giving you s**t. Repeat. Anybody can get it. It’s Devin Haney vs. everybody.
“Repeat, anybody can get it, and we’re not dropping no belts. The lightweight division is on lock, and you’re looking at the man. I repeat, there will only be one lightweight champion in 2023, and you’re looking at him.
“Anybody that wants to be a champion must go through Devin Haney in 2023, and we might think about somebody getting the belt in 2024.
“Champ, if anyone wants to be a lightweight champ in 2023, who do they got to go through, champ?” said Bill to Devin.
“You got to go through the undisputed champ,” said Haney.
“You see, you got to go through the undisputed champ,” said Bill. “Boxing alert. In 2023, the lightweight division is under siege. Bad news.”