Teofimo Lopez has weighed in with his prediction for the upcoming undisputed lightweight clash between Devin Haney and Vasiliy Lomachenko, and believes there is “nobody” in the division who can defeat the masterful Ukrainian.
Lopez handed Lomachenko his second career loss back in 2020, when he upset the bookmakers’ odds to earn a unanimous decision victory.
And even though ‘The Dream’ is the betting favourite over ‘Loma’ this time around, Lopez, who has also sparred Haney, told ESNews he believes his former opponent will win to become champion once again.
“Nobody beats Lomachenko – nobody. I’ve been in the ring with the man, he’s smart, he has so many different tactics that I never even thought of being possible.
This guy has dirty tactics, he has clean tactics, and overall has the experience. I don’t think any of them are ready for that.”
In one of the highlights of the boxing calendar for the year thus far, Haney and Lomachenko will do battle for the WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA lightweight world titles on May 20th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Haney holds all the marbles after consecutive victories over George Kambosos Jr in Australia, who pried the belts from Lopez in one of the biggest upsets of 2021.
Lomachenko has bounced back from the Lopez defeat 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 lost a step.
As for Lopez, he moved up in weight following the defeat to Kambosos and will take on Britain’s Josh Taylor for the WBO light welterweight championship of the world on June 10th.