On Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Devin Haney will defend the WBO, IBF, WBA, WBC lightweight titles against Vasiliy Lomachenko.
The fight is the biggest of Haney’s career, with Lomachenko being a three division world champion and a two-time Olympic gold medal winner.
Haney is viewed as the favorite, the bigger young lion on the rise.
Lomachenko, 35-years-old, is seen by many observers as being at the tail-end of his career.
Former two division world champion, Paulie Malignaggi, believes Lomachenko’s experience and abilities will overcome Haney’s youth and size.
“I pick Lomachenko, I haven’t seen enough of Haney yet against that elite level competition. He’s got talent but in order to see how much that talent can actually blossom, you need to see it tested against a higher level of fighter in order to see what else is there. We know the talent is there.,” Malignaggi told Betway.
“We imagine there’s more behind what we’re seeing because he is so athletic and gifted in so many ways. But we haven’t seen him at that higher level to understand if there’s any more to him, or if it’s just an athletic talent that’s just an illusion. The reason I pick Lomachenko is because I think Haney has had the opportunities to have these kinds of opponents, but he’s chosen to fight the weaker opponents instead.”
Malignaggi believes Haney could have fought a higher level of opponents, but instead targeted name fighters who were beyond their expiration date.
He expects Lomachenko to come away with a twelve round decision win to become the undisputed beltholder at 135-pounds.
“There were guys like Richard Commey hanging around in that area. There were guys like Jermaine Ortiz hanging around in that area. But Haney, instead, chose to fight shot fighters like Linares and Gamboa to build up his resume against names who were, let’s face it, totally shot,” Malignaggi explained.
“Linares got knocked out by Pablo Cano in 2017 in one round. That just goes to show you the level of shot that Linares was when Haney fought him. He dominated but still got into trouble late in the fight. And Gamboa is more shot than him. It leaves some curiosity.”
“Whereas Lomachaenko picks to fight these guys. And he’s still choosing to fight a higher level of opposition. Even in coming back from injury, coming back from the devastation of war in his country, coming back from his longest lay off out of the gym in his career, he’s still choosing tougher opponents.
“When I look at the level of opposition and the enthusiasm Lomachenko has to fight the high level of opposition. And the lack of enthusiasm which I’ve seen Haney try not to fight the highest level of opposition. It leads me to question Haney. It makes you start to wonder if Haney believes in himself as much as he says he does. So that’s why I end up picking Lomachenko on points. Lomachenko has beaten guys like this that he knows he’s the best fighter Haney’s ever fought, while he knows Haney is nowhere near the best fighter that he’s ever thought, and I think that that also gives you a little bit of a psychological edge.”