WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney thinks that Devin Haney will perform a lot better against him than he did in his last fight against Vasily Lomachenko.
Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) faded in the later round, perhaps struggling due to the weight he’d dropped to get down to 135. That problem should go away for Devin now that he’s moving up to 140 to face Prograis, but it might not.
Haney looked like a 154-pounder during Tuesday’s kick-off press conference with Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) for their fight on DAZN PPV at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Devin will need to lose a lot of weight in camp, and that might negatively impact his performance as it did against Lomachenko. It might not matter, though.
If Prograis performs as he did in his last fight against Danielito Zorrilla, Haney will build up a commanding lead and will be able to coast during the championship rounds to win a decision.
“I’m not banking on a Lomachenko fight. I’m banking on my fight with him,” said Regis Prograis to the media about his fight with Devin Haney. “It’s definitely something I want, but is he going to stay at 147,” said Prograis when asked if he wants to avenge his defeat against Josh Taylor.
It would be a mistake for Prograis to think Haney will look the same as he did against Loma, because this is going to be a different fight. Also, Lomachenko made Haney look vulnerable in the second half of the fight with his technical skills, which are well above that of Prograis.
You can’t expect Prograis to necessarily do the same things to Haney that Lomachenko did because his game isn’t as complex.
Haney beat Lomachenko with his size because he looked like he was two to three weight classes bigger after he rehydrated for the fight, and Loma couldn’t deal with the size.
“It depends. There’s way more out there right now. I want the big fights. There are way bigger fights out there than a Josh Taylor rematch,” said Prograis. “Personally, I want it, but business-wise, there are bigger fights. After Haney, we’ll see.
“Of course, way bigger than Josh Taylor,” said Regis when asked if he’d like a fight with Ryan Garcia. “It would be cool to fight Josh Taylor, but Ryan Garcia is way bigger. He’s not a champion, so you can’t say he’s a legit champion. He’s never had a belt.”
At this point, it’s best that Prograis forget about avenging his loss to Josh Taylor because that guy is past his prime now, and he won’t receive credit for beating him now. The time to beat him was shortly after his loss to him in 2019, but obviously, Taylor wasn’t interested in fighting him back then.
“Everybody says, ‘Oh, the belts don’t matter’ when they don’t have one, but as soon as they get one, they start crying on TV and s**t,” said Prograis. “‘Oh, the belts don’t matter,’ but then when you get one, ‘Oh, I’ve wanted to be champion forever.’ People are full of s**t, but we’ll see what happens.
“No, I don’t give him a shot against Canelo. It’s different weight class,” said Prograis when asked if Terence Crawford has a chance against Canelo Alvarez. “We try to match people too much. Crawford is really good, and Canelo is really good.
“Look what he did to Jermell. He just shut him down. The power. They make weight classes for a reason. I don’t see him beating Canelo. I could be wrong, but right now, I don’t see him beating Canelo.
“You need Shakur & Tank [to fight]. You definitely need Shakur and Tank. I think you need Jermall & Canelo. Benavidez & Canelo. For me, I still want to see Jermell against Terence Crawford. I want to see Crawford against Spence at 154.
“I want to see Ryan vs. me. I want to see Teofimo vs. me. I’m biased. I got to go with Jermall. I grew up with Jermall. I was biased with Jermell, too, but he [Canelo] was too much for Jermell, but Jermall is the bigger one.
“Once he gets mentally right. He’s been out of the ring for two years and stuff like that. So he hasn’t [fought]. I think once he gets focused, he’ll be better, and I think he’ll give him [Canelo] a run for his money,” said Prograis.
