Eddie Hearn says he would like to put together a fight between Jorge Linares and Devin Haney next for late April.
The former three-division world champion Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) is one of the options for Haney (25-0, 15 KOs) to make his next title defense for his WBC lightweight belt.
Hearn had hoped that WBC interim champion Ryan Garcia would face Haney, but he’s chosen to go in a different direction towards a possible fight with Javier Fortuna.
Besides Linares, Hearn would like to put a fight together between Haney and the undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez if he doesn’t face George Kambosos Jr next.
There’s a purse bid next week for the Teofimo vs. Kambosos fight on February 18th. We’re going to see after that if Teofimo chooses to take the fight. If not, Haney will likely be the direction Teofimo goes in.
“Haney, the WBC is about to order the Ryan Garcia, but Ryan Garcia has made it quite clear that he wants to fight the whole world apart from Devin Haney,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV.
“So for Haney, he does have a mandatory in Javier Fortuna. Maybe Ryan Garcia might look at that fight as well. The [Jorge] Linares fight is a fight I would love to make for Devin Haney,” said Hearn.
Linares, 35, would be a hard fight for Haney, who hasn’t faced anyone close to the same level as him. Linares has excellent punching power, hand speed, and he’s got loads of experience.
Haney doesn’t punch as hard, and he definitely doesn’t possess the same hand-speed as Linares, which some boxing fans might see as surprising.
Haney isn’t that fast, and he would have to fight defensively to get past a skilled fighter like Linares.
Linares fought a year ago with him stopping Carlos Morales in the fourth round in February 2020. It was thought that Ryan Garcia would take on Linares next, but he chose to take an easier fight against Luke Campbell.
Hearn needs to think hard about whether he wants to put Haney in with Linares cause this is a fight that could go against him.
Haney needs a good step-up opponent to get him ready for a fighter like Linares rather than just taking him on and hoping for the best. Linares has problems with sluggers but not pure boxers like Haney.
“I would love to make Teofimo Lopez [for Haney]. He’s got a purse bid coming up for George Kambosos, which obviously we’ll be bidding on.
“Yeah, Devin is ready to go at the end of April. He just started to get back into training now, getting back into camp. He needs a big fight,” said Hearn about Haney.
If Teofimo isn’t satisfied with the purse bid results, he may opt to take the fight with Haney. But we won’t know that until next week.