Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn insists that WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney and IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO champion George Kambosos Jr. “MUST meet” if Devin successfully wins his fight this Saturday night against Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr. at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Hearn sounds like he’s ordering Kambosos to fight Haney. Kambosos-Haney would make sense if it were an eliminator fight to get to a MUCH bigger one involving a talent like Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, but it’s not a great one for the undisputed.
Kambosos deserves much better than Haney if he wants to bring in the dough and prove to the fans he’s the #1 fighter in the lightweight division.
Hearn believes that Haney vs. Kambosos is the biggest fight in the 135-lb division and that fans will be clamoring to see it.
If Hearn put it to a vote, he’d find out that the boxing public rates Haney far below other fighters like Gervonta Davis that they would like to see sharing the ring with Kambosos.
Haney vs. Kambosos is a tedious fight on paper. It might do well in Australia, but it’s not a great one for U.S fans. Joseph Diaz Jr., Tank, Vasily Lomachenko, or Ryan Garcia would be far superior options for Kambosos than Haney.
Is Haney vs. Kambosos the best fight?
However, there’s another argument that Haney (26-0, 15 KOs), who has a very boring style of fighting and zero punching power, is not nearly as famous as Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is right now.
Suppose the idea is to give the boxing world a fight that fans would be interested in seeing in large numbers. In that case, Tank Davis vs. Kambosos is the far better fight than watching Haney spoil for 12 rounds, clinching nonstop, and boxing with his watered-down Mayweather-esque style.
Having watched Haney clinch excessively in the championship rounds to SURVIVE after being repeatedly hurt in his last fight against past his best 36-year-old Jorge Linares on May 29th, he’s not nearly an exciting opponent for Kambosos compared to Tank Davis.
Mouth-watering options for Kambosos
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Ryan Garcia
- Richard Commey
- Gervonta Davis
- Jose Zepeda
- Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
- Shakur Stevenson
- Oscar Valdez
- Emanuel Navarrete
- Miguel Berchelt
- Jose Ramirez
“George Kambosos Jr deserves respect, credit, and right now, he’s the man. Devin Haney’s our man,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social. “Right now, George is the man. He had a standout victory; this win for Devin [against Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr] will be another standout, then the two must meet.”
“Forget the undisputed argument, this is the real undisputed [Haney & Kambosos], and it’s the best fight in the division. But it’s totally irrelevant if Devin doesn’t win on Saturday,” said Hearn.
This writer feels Haney is a boring choice for Kambosos, and it would be far better to see George fight one of the talents from my above list.
It’s not that Haney is a lousy fighter. He’s a good fighter, but he brings out the worst of what we’d grown accustomed to seeing from Mayweather in the past. Haney has no power, and he’s much slower than Mayweather.
With the emphasis on jabbing, Haney is very boring to watch, and it was so ugly seeing him clinching excessively to escape from being knocked out by Linares last May.
You can argue that Haney should have been penalized for his excessive clinching because he was using it as a tactic to survive and was nonstop for the last four rounds.
“I think we’re going to get another cracking fight this Saturday [between Haney and Jojo Diaz], which will hopefully lead to the real undisputed and put the arguments aside and lead us to an unbelievable fight between George Kambosos and Devin Haney,” said Hearn.
“Teofimo Lopez promised us he’d fight Devin Haney next. He lost, so that’s irrelevant anyway. George and his dad have said, ‘We’ll fight Devin Haney. Money talks. We got to sit down with Kambosos’ team, and Lou DiBella, his promoter, Peter Kahn, and all these people.
“For me, part of me would like to do that in Australia in Sydney or Melbourne or wherever it could land. I’d love to do it in the U.S as well. Obviously, Devin would probably prefer it in the U.S, but I don’t think he would have a problem traveling either.