Devin Haney moved his record to a perfect 30-0 with a close unanimous decision win over Vasiliy Lomachenko to retain his WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring lightweight titles at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Haney earned the nod on all three scorecards but it was far from a rout.
The chess match was on at the beginning of the fight. Both men tried to get the early lead in the fight with mixed results.
Lomachenko was able to close the distance and get inside, but Haney was the aggressor early on, making the early rounds difficult to judge.
Lomachenko, who was the smaller fighter, did well to close the distance and throw Haney off his rhythm early. Former welterweight titlist Shawn Porter had some advice for both combatants.
Haney’s best early work came from body punches throughout the first half of the fight but he landed an impactful left hand in Round 7 that appeared to stun Lomachanenko.
Lomachenko recovered just fine and arguably won the round with his work the rest of the way. It served as a microcosm for how competitive the fight was throughout the night.
Lomachenko really found his groove in the later rounds. As the fight wore on his output remained strong and he found a home for several combinations.
Scorecards across social media were all over the place but Lomachenko earned the scores from the only people that mattered.
The win is just the latest bullet point on a growing list of accomplishments for the 24-year-old. He most recently defeated George Kambosos Jr. in back-to-back fights to unify the lightweight titles and successfully defend them.
Now, Lomachenko joins Kambosos and Yuriorkis Gamboa as former world champions that The Dream has defeated.
Haney has solidified himself as the world’s top lightweight and there are some interesting names out there for him in the division, but his future might be at 140 pounds. He’s been making 135 pounds throughout his career and it’s typical for fighters ot move up a few classes as they age.
There are only a handful of fights that Haney has said he’ll continue to make the cut for.
“There’s good fights at 135 and I wanna make the biggest fights,” Haney said, per Keith Idec of Boxing Scene. “Shakur (Stevenson) is one of the names on the list. Tank [Davis] is one of the names on the list. And truthfully, those are probably the only fights that I would even stay at 135 for because other fights just wouldn’t even make sense.”
Haney is probably correct in saying that Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson are the biggest fights they could make for him after the win. Davis is coming off an impressive knockout win over Ryan Garcia while Stevenson cruised to a sixth-round knockout win over Shuichiro Yoshino in his lightweight debut.
With all three picking up wins in the last two months, it’s a great time for lightweight boxing and Haney is now in the driver’s seat.
Bleacherreport
