Derek Chisora has personally given advice to Devin Haney ahead of his highly-expected but as yet unannounced title defence against Vasily Lomachenko
‘The Dream’ won all the lightweight belts by defeating George Kambosos Jr in Australia, and did the same again in the immediate rematch – even more convincingly that time.
The veteran heavyweight was asked by Seconds Out first who wins, and he pointed to the man standing to his right, Haney.
“My brother [Haney.] I’ve seen this guy go to Australia, twice, yeah? And on top of that they tried to disrupt his whole camp by saying his dad could not go, and I thought he was gonna be fazed about it.
You know what happened? God was looking after him. He just got on the plane, he went there, dealt with the guy, came back, went back again, dealt with the guy, came back, and the guy’s still sitting there holding his head saying ‘what happened?'”
There aren’t many who place Kambosos in the same league as Lomachenko, though.
The Ukrainian is one of the most successful amateur boxers of all time with just one reported loss – which he avenged – and was the unified champion in the division before an unexpected loss to Teofimo Lopez.
Chisora, however, believes Haney can get the job done if he doesn’t fight to impress a crowd and focuses on his stellar jab.
“The way he beat his last opponents. Outsmarting them. This young man here, he don’t fight for the crowd. He outsmarts [his opponents.] Every time they come in, he puts his jab out there – eat that. He steps out – eat that. And every time he wants to go in, he does in – eat the jab.”
“That works for him. The jab. When he opens up with the jab, then everything else comes together. But, most fighters want to come in and start putting five combinations [together] before they establish the jab first.”
Haney agreed that ‘everything starts with the jab.’
Recently, at the presser for Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia, the young undisputed champion said that the Lomachenko fight should materialise on May 20 and that the Middle Eastern nation was a potential host.
The fight will see Haney fight on Top Rank for the third time after his two Kambosos bouts, and is undoubtedly the toughest test of his undefeated career so far.