Devin Haney simply believes Vasiliy Lomachenko is catching him at the wrong time.
The 24-year-old undisputed lightweight champion from Oakland, California, feels that the three-division titlist from Ukraine would have had greater advantages in the ring had they fought “years and years ago,” when Haney first started calling him out.
Now, with four titles to his name, Haney thinks he will be too much for the 35-year-old Lomachenko to contend with.
The two are on track to fight each other in a 12-round, 135-pound championship bout on May 20 on ESPN or ESPN Pay-Per-View. The site for the matchup is not yet known. Haney, who resides in Las Vegas, has stated that his preference is for the fight to take place somewhere in the Middle East.
“I told him a long time ago, fight me now because it’s only gonna get worse,” Haney said of Lomachenko in an interview with SecondsOut.com. “And right now, it’s, you know, I’m a different breed of fighter right now. I’m just a much more mature fighter right now than I was when I was calling him out, years and years ago, even though I think I would’ve won.
“Now I’m just gonna show how many levels I am above him at this time in my career.”
Haney had a banner year last year when, in June, he travelled to Australia to take on George Kambosos Jr. at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne for the undisputed lightweight championship. Haney won convincingly on points.
In the contractually mandated rematch that took place several months later in October, Haney went back to Australia and repeated the results, winning another landslide decision to retain his undisputed status.
Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) has hinted that he plans to vacate his belts and move up to the junior welterweight division after his fight with Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs).
Lomachenko is coming off a points win over Jamaine Ortiz last October at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, his first fight since the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.