Via Craig Page: Jorge Linares is leaning towards Devin Haney to beat Vasyl Lomachenko if they ever meet for the undisputed lightweight championship.
Haney doesn’t have the hand speed or strength of Jamaine Ortiz, so Lomachenko will probably do better against him. Ortiz had a lot of speed and power early on. The point where Haney is superior to Ortiz is in physical strength and forte.
Linares points to 23-year-old Haney’s size (29-0.15 KOs) as something that could set him apart from Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs), who is clearly outside his natural weight class is 130 by competing with people who weigh more than 135 pounds.
Lomachenko had one of the worst performances of his career last Saturday night in a unanimous 12th round decision against Jamaine Ortiz (16-1-1, 8 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Many boxing fans gave Ortiz the win, while others felt a draw should have been scored.
Ortiz has a size advantage over Lomachenko in terms of weight and reach. He actually appears two divisions on Lomachenko in terms of size.
If Loma were to fight Haney, he would have faced similar size issues as Devin is said to be a 140 lb boxer, and perhaps you could even make the case that he is a heavyweight. weighs 147 pounds.
When Haney stood next to Lomachenko inside the ring after last Saturday’s match, he looked like a solid middleweight. There’s no way you can imagine two wars with the size difference between them.
“After that war, Lomachenko didn’t look like Lomachenko anymore“Jorge Linares said to Fighthype about his 2018 fight against Vasyl Lomachenko, which he lost by knockout in the 10th round.
Linares is giving himself too much credit for the problems he caused Lomachenko in 2018.
In fact, Loma has played well in many battles since then, defeating Anthony Crolla, Luke Campbell, Richard Commey and Masayoshi Nakatani with ease.
Where Lomachenko had problems was when he was faced with oversized ultralightweights in Jermaine Ortiz and Teofimo Lopez, both of whom looked like lightweight athletes.
“If that game happens, 60-40, Haney has the best timing right now,” Linares said when asked who would win between Devin Haney and Lomachenko. “He is quick; he’s fast, he’s strong, and he moves really well in the ring. “
“You watched the final battle with the Kambosos. He made an incredible fight. Lomachenko is Lomachenko, but it’s a different weight, different body,” Linares said.
“I don’t think so,” said Lomachenko’s cutter, Russ Anber Fighthype when he said that many boxing fans assumed that Jamaine Ortiz beat Vasyl Lomachenko.
“Although he is super brave with his efforts, I will give him full credit for that. He tried one of his shots, and he fought his own. He [Ortiz] been in a situation; You have to remember that everyone expects him not to win.
“He was the underdog in the game, and he fought like he wanted to win. It’s huge. Win, lose, draw, I’m sure you want to win. But there is such a thing in boxing as ‘losing well’.
“He just stayed with one of the best fighters on the planet [Lomachenko] and stay with him teeth & nails, and I think that’s something to be proud of. He fought a hellish battle.
“I think Loma’s touch rate is higher than Jermain’s, and he made Jermain miss a lot of punches. It’s really after round 8 that Loma starts to put the pedal to the medal.
He took off like the Secretariat [1973 Kentucky Derby winner racehorse] and pull away. I think that’s the key in the fight.
“I said to John, Loma’s attorney, ‘It’s going to be 117.’ So I count that we have nine innings. I think we won nine innings.
“I don’t know if you can call it a rusty ring,” Anber said when asked if he thought Lomachenko looked rusty after not wearing it for almost a year. “A guy who can’t be precise with his shots put such heat on a guy, and put pressure and put it on him.
“I wouldn’t say rusty rings. However, what I’m seeing is that these guys are a lot bigger than Loma. Whether it’s Commey, Teofimo Lopez, this guy. All of them are big compared to [Lomachenko].
“You look at them, ‘Is this guy in the same weight class? He seems much older. They’re a lot bigger than him, and that’s what he has to do to be competitive.
“I think if he stayed in the smaller weight category, I don’t think anyone [that could compete with him]. People won’t even come to his game because he’s so dominant.
“So to make it interesting, he had to move to a larger weight class, and now looks the size of the people he has to fight. I hope so,” Anber said of Lomachenko likely going to fight Devin Haney next.
“There’s no doubt about that [Haney potentially being the toughest fight of Lomachenko’s professional career. “He’s a world champion. I mean, it definitely could well be and stylistically could be a tough fight because Devin is hard to hit as well.
“It’s going to be like a chess match. It’s not because the rounds are close. It’s 9-3 so easy,” said Anber when asked if Jamaine Ortiz deserves a rematch with Lomachenko because of the 9-3 score given to Loma, which has been widely criticized as being out of sync with the fight that took place last Saturday night.
“You could say 8-4 even. His [Lomachenko] attorney had it 8-4. It is competitive. Just because it was 9-3 doesn’t mean the 9 rounds he won weren’t tough, competitive sets. He just has to fight a little harder than Jermaine.
“Listen, Jermaine fought a terrible battle. I know his coach Rocky Gonzalez very well. They were prepared, and they came to win, and they gave their all. Loma is Loma.
“It’s not me,” Anber said when asked if there was a chance of a rematch between Lomachenko and Jermaine. “I am a cutter. I’m not part of the business and things like that. As for me, I think Loma wants to get her belt back,” Anber said.
