Haney and Lomachenko give lightweight boxing a thrilling match

LAS VEGAS — Forty minutes into an April workout, Devin Haney, the undisputed lightweight champion, walked through the ring at Top Rank Gym to throw punches at a coach wearing shooting gloves, a thick body pad and, as the session progressed, a grimace .

A series of jabs and a sharp right hand. A spindle and a thumping body blows.

Another assistant coach leaned on the top rope with a clicker in his right hand and announced that Haney had just passed 2,000 punches thrown.

Haney, 24, wasn’t just a pat to push up the numbers as he trains for his title defense on Saturday night against Vasiliy Lomachenko, 35.

During a short break, the coach walked to a corner of the ring with the mittens on and grumbled that Haney had nearly broken his hands. When the action resumed, Bill Haney, Devin’s father and head coach, asked to borrow a notebook and pen from a reporter.

“He hits much harder!!!!” Bill Haney wrote.

While the clash between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia in April was the most high-profile boxing match of early 2023, more is at stake for Saturday’s pairing between Haney and Lomachenko. Davis and Garcia met at a catchweight (136 pounds) and did not fight for an official title; Haney and Lomachenko will meet in lightweight (135 pounds), with the winner claiming championships from all four major sanctioning bodies.

Lomachenko is a two-time Olympic champion from Ukraine who has used a dizzying mix of speed, strength and footwork to win pro championships in three divisions, but has never held the undisputed title in lightweight.

Right now, Haney, 29-0 with 15 knockouts, has those ties, a distinction that makes him the A-side in a fight between elite performers. He sees his improved punching power as another factor that he believes will propel him past Lomachenko and cement his status as the best fighter in a talented division.

“I want to be an all-time great in this sport, and this fight is just one step closer,” Haney said after training. “Loma is a good fighter. I’ll look to make him look average. I am kryptonite in his style.”

“They’re going to give me my credit after this,” he later added.

Last June, Haney defeated Australian fighter George Kambosos Jr. to become the undisputed champion and provide much-needed clarity to people trying to follow the sport. In most weight classes, titles from the four major sanctioning bodies are split between different fighters, making it difficult to determine which champion is the “real”.

At lightweight, Haney owns all four belts. One division, one champion.

Still, some colleagues and potential opponents debate his credentials.

Haney became the World Boxing Council lightweight champion for the first time in 2019, when the organization promoted him from interim champion, essentially giving him a title without a fight. Those events led Davis to call him an “email champion.”

And his shot at Kambosos only came after Lomachenko, who was already contracted to challenge Kambosos, turned down the fight. When Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Lomachenko interrupted his boxing career to join the army; Haney replaced him against Kambosos and won three titles.

Lomachenko resumed his career last October, winning a 12-round decision against Jamaine Ortiz. At 35, Lomachenko doesn’t see his age as a disadvantage, but he acknowledges that nine years after he won his first world title, his chances are getting smaller.

“This is my last chance to become undisputed world champion,” said Lomachenko, who is 17-2 with 11 knockouts. “Right now, right now, it’s the most interesting weight class in the world and you always have to prove you’re the best.”

Haney first lobbied for a Lomachenko fight in early 2019, when Haney was a highly regarded prospect who had yet to win a world title, and when Lomachenko held title ties from two major sanctioning bodies.

Lomachenko’s manager, Egis Klimas, turned down Haney’s camp for logistical reasons – Haney was affiliated with Matchroom Boxing, which streams its events on DAZN, while Lomachenko was committed to Top Rank and ESPN. But Klimas also pointed out that Haney had not yet achieved enough to earn a high-profile big-money match against Lomachenko.

“Devin wasn’t a name. Devin had no titles,” Klimas said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Lomachenko was always chasing champions, the big names.”

Now Haney has the titles and the bargaining power.

The pairing of Haney and Lomachenko is the latest iteration of an appealing archetypal sporting match – the great veteran who may have peaked versus the young star approaching his peak.

Those combinations are clear draws in other sports. Football had the Super Bowl for the 2020 season in which Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took down Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs. The NBA has had informal torch passes; think Michael Jordan’s Bulls outclassed Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals. Haney and Lomachenko aren’t nearly as well known, but their positions in the sport make a wide variety of results appealing.

“This is among the best,” Bob Arum, the fight’s promoter, told reporters at a news conference. “Why? Because it’s so competitive and there are so many opinions about who’s going to win.”

Either way, Saturday’s winner will be the best fighter in boxing’s hottest division.

Potential matchups loom with boxers like Shakur Stevenson, the undefeated former 130-pound champion, who, like Lomachenko, is being promoted by Top Rank (Haney’s Top Rank deal expires after Saturday’s fight). Hypothetically, the winner of Saturday’s fight could also play Davis, whose victory over Garcia boosted his profile and appeal. And unlike the welterweight and heavyweight divisions, where negotiations between top star matches keep getting bogged down, top lightweights seem bent on making these matchups happen, even if it means rival promoters have to work together.

“It’s a good time in boxing,” Haney said. ‘We are all young. We should be happy that we are both in this era of young guys who are all in the same weight class.”