Haney vs Loma – The Undisputed Chess Match
Devin “The Dream” Haney (29-0, 15KO) defends his Undisputed lightweight crown to Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (17-2, 11KO) on Saturday, May 20 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in what could be the most skillfull fight of the year involving two of the lightweight division's cleverest combatants.
Background
Three years ago, a young, naïve Devin Haney vowed to end the reign of the formidable Vasyl Lomachenko, but he didn’t quite use the right words to express his pledge, controversially stating, “I will never lose to white boy. Fight a white boy 10 times, I’m going to beat him 10 times.”
This distasteful comment was once used years before by Bernard Hopkins, which predated his deserved, decisive defeat to Welshman Joe Calzaghe. Could Haney’s foolish adolescent words come back to bite him like they did with B-Hop?
Both boxers started in the sport at a young age and are each trained by their fathers – Bill Haney and Anatoly Lomachenko.
Although Haney is coming into his 30th contest and Lomachenko just his 20th, it’s the American champion who is the younger, fresher man here and there’s a feeling amongst boxing peers that this could be a passing of the torch moment and a footnote in boxing history to be remembered for years to come.
Amateur Careers
American hero Haney had an impressive amateur career which saw him crowned with seven national championships and compiled an astonishing record of 138-8. His famous rivalry in the amateurs was with Ryan Garcia, with the pair split at 2-2; a rivalry many fans want to see reignited in the pros at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later.
But when it comes to amateur careers, Lomachenko’s is unsurpassable, and the Ukrainian will likely go down in history as the greatest amateur boxer of all-time. 396 wins from 397 bouts with two Olympic golds and two World Amateur Championships, plus many more gold medals is a sporting achievement we will probably never see happen again.
Professional Careers
Loma came into the pros and immediately set about breaking more records. He won a 10-round title fight on his pro debut, then fought for a world title in his second bout with the aim of beating Saensak Muangsurin’s record of becoming world champion in just his third fight, but instead he was forced to equal it.
But then he became the quickest two-weight world champion in his seventh contest, then the quickest triple champion in his 12th bout against Jorge Linares, who actually managed to floor Loma in the opening round.
Having settled a lightweight, Loma began adding titles to his 135lbs collection unifying three belts, until he suffered a second loss to Teofimo Lopez during lockdown. Loma’s performance was very uncharacteristic of him, barely throwing anything until the eighth round, when it was far too late. In round one, he threw just four punches and landed only one.
He has since bounced back with three very dominant wins, including a ninth-round knockout of Masayoshi Nakatani; then followed a one-sided beatdown over Richard Commey; culminating in a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over unbeaten Jamaine Ortiz, which was his only fight of 2022.
Haney started boxing at the age of seven and has always been ahead of his years. He won his professional debut just three weeks after his 17th birthday, passing up the opportunity to represent Team USA at the Olympics, and fought his first four fights in Mexico.
Still aged 17, he had his fifth fight at the MGM Grand in Vegas, a venue most boxers can only dream of fighting in. He started collecting regional and national belts to begin his rise up the world rankings, but it was in 2019, a couple of months before turning 21, when he won the WBC Interim lightweight title against 11-0 Zaur Abdullaev; then he became the full world champion eight days before his 21st birthday by defeating 12-0 Alfredo Santiago, winning 120-107 on all three judges’ cards.
Then he became the youngest undisputed champion in history at 23 years, 6 months, 19 days. He travelled over 8,000 miles to make history by beating Australian George Kambosos Jr in Melbourne by unanimous decision then he went back again four months later in October 2022 do dominate the rematch even more than their first fight.
Styles
Haney has one of the best jabs in the business. He boxes reminiscent of Floyd Mayweather with his left arm low in a sling and his right hand glued to his chin. He flicks out the sharp, accurate jab from his hip at such a speed it’s almost impossible to see it coming and even harder to avoid.
The skilful American takes zero risks and throws only single or double shots from long range before shifting his feet to get out the way. He is extremely elusive, using either his fast feet or fluid upper trunk movement to evade attacks.
Haney tends to focus his attacks up top only occasionally going to the body. Everything comes off that flash jab of his. He’s also successful with a check left hook after he has studied his opponents’ patterns. He isn’t credited enough for his high ring IQ and for being a master of his craft.
He only steps into mid-range when his opponents are worn down which is when he adds volume, variety and ferocity to his attacks.
Southpaw Lomachenko is a volume puncher with incredible footwork and movement that always makes him appear to be one step ahead of his opponents at any given time. His style of boxing and cat-like reflexes is like he is living in his own timezone separate from the rest of us, which is how he adopted the nickname “The Matrix”.
His feet can shuffle in every direction and at a speed that’s too fast to comprehend so that in one second he is right in front of you and when you blink, he is now behind your left shoulder and you’re caught out cold, defenceless. He must be the most frustrating and complex person for his unsuspecting opponents to fight against.
He doesn’t possess great power, it takes a lot of wearing down for him to get his opponents out of there. There has been more than one fight of his where he has looked to the referee in a plea to stop the one-sided beatdown but without the fight-ending, decisive punch in sight, the slaughter has been allowed to continue.
Vasyl is also incredibly intelligent with the highest ring IQ you could ever have. He is the boxing equivalent of Albert Einstein. He often spends the first few rounds data collecting and once he has his opponent studied, he simply goes to work and dominates comprehensively.
The Fight
Haney is the bigger man of the two and the defending champion on home turf, so straightaway there’s a few big advantages stacked in his favour before the ringwalks.
However, the main asset that gives him the edge in this fight is his youth. At just 24, he his almost 10 years his opponent’s junior. 35-year-old Lomachenko is visibly on the decline – the highlight reels that go viral after his performances are becoming less frequent – whereas Haney is still enjoying his ascent. Fans used to marvel at Loma’s craft, now it’s more just appreciation and respect.
Haney will do well to utilise his greater size, reach and height in this fight, while trying to catch Loma on his way in.
As mentioned earlier, Loma likes to data collect, but it’s vital he gets off to a quick start to begin winning rounds from the first onwards. To do this, he must take risks and rely on his instincts instead of starting slow and steadily.
The fight poster to advertise this event had a picture of a chessboard with all its pieces on, so expect this to be a very technical fight.
Betting Odds
The champion Haney is the favourite to win at 2/5 with Betway, while Lomachenko is a 21/10 outsider. Odds for a draw are quite low at 12/1.
Predictions
I think the bookies odds sum this fight up quite well. It’s such a close fight that it could very easily end in a draw, but if anyone is going to edge it, it’ll be the champion, Haney.
If Loma gets off to a bright start then this contest could be agonisingly close and I can certainly see the possibility of it being split.
I could imagine this contest starting for the first few rounds with barely a handful of punches landed each. I can envisage both being very tentative and cagey to commit. I think there will be a lot of flinching, feinting, inciting, analysis and vigilance as each man aims to find chinks in the other’s armour.
For me, I just think the fresher, younger, bigger man, who holds all the belts, will edge a closely-fought, technical contest, by just narrowly outpointing the challenger by staying smart and landing his jabs from range and clinching where necessary.
Loma was introduced to the 135lbs division by a sixth-round knockdown by Linares in 2018, then he was outworked by the larger Lopez in 2020, and now he faces another bigger man who is a beast at lightweight. His first pro loss was to a man that was weight classes above him on the night, so there is a clear issue with bigger guys.
Verdict
Haney to win on points.
