Devin Haney vs Jorge Linares possible for April

I supposes this is a step up for Haney, but Linares is done at the top level IMO.

 

After Cano sparked Linares in R1, he dropped to gatekeeper status imo.

While he's Haney's best opponent to date, it's not the kind of fight that will justify his claims to the "real" WBC belt or dispel the criticisms of Teofimo's camp... Risky fight in that he'll get no credit if he wins & eviscerated if he fights poorly or leaves it to the judges.

 

Excellent fight for Haney

 

I dont think he's looking for credit he's looking to get work against an experienced pro. It's a necessary stage for fighters who dont have 300+ amateur bouts and then step right into the limelight

 

Sure, and that would be fine if he were still in the prospect phase of his career. However, the WBC awarded him the belt after an eliminator, rushing him into certain expectations. Without the strap, this would be equivalent to Garcia v. Campbell... a young guy testing himself against a seasoned vet. Now that he's champ, a Linares fight is bound to raise eyebrows... It is what it is. Devin's a great fighter, hopefully he can deal with the pressure.

In a perfect world, the WBC could clean up the mess they've made by mandating a unification between Haney and Lopez in the fall.

 

A lot of danger in this fight for Haney, I think Linares is faster and perhaps offensively better. Haney is clearly defensively better but one thing is that I don't think he has the power or style to detonate Linares. I'd favor Haney as he is the fresher of the two, but this is one of those problematic style fights that pop up every once in a while for younger guys. He'll learn from this fight far more than his fight with Gamboa.

 

Good fight! Haney is daring to be great!

 

Jorge Linares is the man. Huge fan, happy that he won't retire anytime soon.

 

That's what I see with Linares,,his first fight at gatekeeper . I give him very little chance here because he wouldn't have been selected if he had the opportunity to mess up Haney's chance at a bigger money fight.

 

Really, really interesting fight, IMO. Linares sharp punching and timing could pose some real problems for Haney. I expect Haney to win, but it’s a great test.

 

Linares is being slept on here. He may be on his way out, but he' still exceptionally dangerous. Linares is fast and hits fairly hard, with great timing to boot.

 

Hopefully he doesnt send us to sleep. Hes not usually entertaining to watch

 

His job is to win fights so if I'm him I'm not worried about that but yea obviously hoping for an entertaining fight

 

Yeah sure man. You had a problem with the great Wlad Klitschkos boring fights but not Haney and Ward. No agenda there.

 

The LW's are a joke. I blame Floyd for all of this, creating this culture of "brewing the fights", wait, wait, wait and making it all about the business rather than the fights.

Why haven't they fought each other yet? The last time we had that many big names in the lower weights:
Hamed x MAB - 1
Pac-MAB - 2x
MAB-Morales - 3x
Pac-Morales - 3x
Pac-JMM - 3x
MAB-JMM - 3x

15 fights between the top fighters around that weight of that era.

Now we can't even get these primadonnas to fight each other once each. Only Loma-Lopez has stepped up so far.