The only man to have shared a professional boxing ring with both Devin Haney and Vasiliy Lomachenko has weighed in with a prediction for their hotly anticipated undisputed fight on May 20th.
Three weight world champion Jorge Linares was defeated via unanimous decision by Haney back in 2021, whilst Lomachenko stopped him in ten rounds three years prior.
With arguably no one better placed in the sport to predict the blockbuster lightweight clash, Linares told Fight Hub TV he’s backing the American to keep hold of his four prized belts.
“For me, this time it’ll be Haney. By decision I think.”
Haney and Lomachenko will do battle for the WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA lightweight world titles at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in one of the highlights of the boxing calendar for 2023 thus far.
Haney holds all the marbles after consecutive victories over George Kambosos Jr in Australia, who pried the belts from Teofimo Lopez in one of the biggest upsets of 2021.
Lomachenko, who has held all 135lb world titles at one point or another, has bounced back from a defeat to Lopez with wins over Masayoshi Nakatani, Richard Commey and most recently Jamaine Ortiz.
However the last of those was a close fight, in which some observers felt it looked like the 35 year old had begun to feel his age, and as such Haney goes into the contest as a favourite with the bookmakers.
A meeting with the prodigal Shakur Stevenson looks to be in store for the winner, after Stevenson announced his arrival to the lightweight division with an impressive stoppage victory over Japanese opponent Shuichiro Yoshino earlier this month.