Erickson Lubin says Devin Haney just needs to “remember how good he really is” for him to start shining again like he’d done in the past. The junior middleweight contender Lubin believes Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) is doubting his chin after his performance against Ryan Garcia last year. That’s why he was gun-shy last week in the fight against Jose Ramirez at Times Square.
(Credit: Geoffrey Knott/Matchroom)
The “Good” Fighter Illusion
Fans question whether Haney was ever good. We know he was carefully matched to make him look good artificially, but he never showed that he was by beating anyone. Devin was another of the many manufactured fighters we see wily promoters creating nowadays for money purposes.
The problem is, Haney, 26, had never proven that he’s a “good” fighter during his career before his loss to Ryan on April 20th last year in Brooklyn, New York. He’d been a weight bully at lightweight, draining down to fight smaller fighters than him, and still not looking great against the mostly marginal opposition he’d fought.
The only good fighter Haney fought at lightweight was Vasily Lomachenko, and he clearly lost to him. The judges gave Devin a VERY controversial decision. Most boxing fans on social media had Loma winning.
If you take that fight out of Devin’s resume, there’s no one that he’d beaten to prove that he was a “good’ fighter. Haney’s loss to Ryan showed the level he’s at. Haney has no power and can’t take a punch. You can’t put Devin in with fighters like Jaron Ennis, Brian Norman, or Gary Antuanne Russell without him getting knocked out.
There’s no word yet whether Turki Alalshikh will go ahead with his plans for Haney to fight Ryan Garcia in a rematch in October. It’s not just Haney’s boring performance against Ramirez that makes that fight unappealing. It’s Ryan’s loss to Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. He lost a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision to Romero, and looked like the shadow of the fighter he’d been when he beat Haney.
Vulnerable Against Punchers
Devin will have to fight somebody else if the rematch doesn’t happen, and that will be a problem. For him to get another big payday like he enjoyed against Ramirez, he’s going to need to fight a live body this time. That means someone like Teofimo Lopez or Rolly. Haney’s brittle chin would be tested against those guys. He wouldn’t be able to get by with running for 12 rounds like he did against Ramirez. Those guys will catch him and tap his chin.
“I just think Devin’s got to remember how good he really is and not let that slip out of his mind,” Erickson Lubin told The Ring about Devin Haney following his poor performance against Jose Ramirez last week. “Because he probably [questioning] if he’s got a chin.
But [Devin] will get over it, though. He’ll get over whatever he’s going through. He’ll bounce back. He just got to really lock in and believe in himself, believe that he can take a punch and just remember that.”