Devin Haney vs Vasyl Lomachenko - Why Haney Can't Win

I think that you misunderstood my post. I said that Loma hits harder but better is up for debate. By better I mean punch placement and accuracy. I think that Haney's skill level is on par if not slightly better than Loma's in that area of expertise.

 

That was the Haney before Kambozo 2.

 

Compubox proves you wrong on that account. Lomachenko has the best plus/minus in all of boxing, and the big reason for that is his offense. He lands more clean punches than just about everyone in the entire sport. So you are wrong there.

 

I hear you but what you don't understand is that he didn't get any of those numbers from hitting on Haney.

 

I'm hoping we get to see it. But Rigondeaux had one of the best defenses in all of boxing, and Loma hit him plenty of times. Granted that was prime Loma, but I don't think Haney is as good defensively as Rigo.

I think Haney is a fantastic boxer, but he's one of the most hyped fighters in the sport right now. He's improving, but we won't really get to see what Haney is made of unless he fights Loma this winter, next year or we see him move up and fight a quality opponent, an opponent where Haney doesn't have a size advantage and who's at a high level. If I remember right, JoJo Diaz was constantly landing on Haney. They landed about the same punches in that fight. If JoJo could do that, what do you think Loma is going to do?

 

Rigondeaux is 5'4" and was 37 years old when he fought Loma. Loma is 5'7" and was 29 years old. It's the opposite with Haney and Loma.

 

Well, Rigo was still performing at a high level at that time. I'm pretty sure he was still on the pound for pound list. But that's not really the point I was trying to make. What I was saying was in regard to JoJo Diaz.

haney-diaz-compubox-punch-stats.jpg

As you can see, JoJo's defense was actually better than Devin's, and they almost landed the same amount of punches throughout the fight. If JoJo can do that, then I'm sure Loma will have a lot of success.

 

JoJo lost that fight and Rigo was too small and too old. Loma knew that because he really didn't want the Rigo fight. He went on and fought Rigo because he was running his mouth non-stop. Loma decided to close it.

 

I know JoJo lost. Haney fought him because he presented almost zero threat. But the point I'm making is that JoJo matched Haney with the connect rate, and JoJo isn't even half the fighter that Loma is, even an aging Loma.

I just checked the odds, and Haney is on top as a favorite right now. Haney has opened as a -225 and Loma as a +172. However, do not count out Loman just yet. He may have lost a step, but that doesn't mean that he's going to lose to Haney. If there were ever a time to bet on an underdog, this is the time. Despite age creeping up, Haney hasn't fought anyone yet. He has yet to be put down on the cards. He will be down on the cards in this fight, so the question will be what adjustments can Haney make going down the stretch. That's the question.

The only way you can prepare for Lomachenko is by fighting Lomachenko. There's not a sparring partner Haney can get that will prepare him for Loma. However, there are plenty of sparring partners in the US that Loma can use to prepare him for Haney. This is why Ortiz was as successful as he was in that fight. He actually had a sparring partner that prepared him for Loma, which was Loma. But Loma never sparred with the real Ortiz, just Ortiz trying to fight like Richard Commey.

I'll just leave it at this: If you want to make a good bet on an underdog, then you should definitely bet on Loma. (I just hope the fight actually happens because I still have some doubts.)

 

If Loma fights the way he did against Ortiz, then I like Haney by a pretty comfortable decision. Loma looked pretty slow getting out of the exchanges, also not coming out of the in-fighting "small enough", so to speak. Sometimes he looked ineffective getting out of range at odd angles, as Ortiz' anticipation and punch selection was pretty on point, especially early.

Haney seems like one of those fighters that, although not very explosive and exciting generally, can sometimes produce a spectacular performance against a very high-level opponent.

If Haney were to dominate a Loma who looks good, would he be top 5 lb 4 lb?

 

haney is too big. loma needs to go down to 126-130

 

I think people are having knee jerk reactions to the Ortiz fight. I suppose it didn't help that no one knew who he was really and had him criminally rated as a huge underdog. The bookies make Loma a -2000 favorite, and then when the fight is competitive, people suddenly favor Haney to beat Loma.

People who think that this wasn't a clear victory for Loma have no idea what they were (are) watching. Haney is being overrated and Loma is being underrated in typical knee jerk fashion. The Kambosos Haney fought is the same Kambosos that won by the skin of his teeth against an old Mickey Bey who hadn't fought in years, the same Kambosos who won by a couple rounds against an injured, out-of-his-mind Lopez (kid was in the middle of a divorce and almost broke), the same Kambosos who was doomed to lose to the first good boxer he faced. And this is the same Haney who was nearly outlanded in punches by JoJo Diaz, the same Haney who was buzzed multiple times by JoJo and rocked by old Linares.

I don't think there's a more distorted picture of two fighters going into this fight than there is of Loma and Haney.

 

While I expect an extremely competitive bout between Haney-Loma, I do think that there is a indeed a good deal of recency bias in fan perceptions of the two fighters.