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Teofimo Lopez admires Devin Haney's jab and thinks Haney has benefited from his opponent's training.
Lopez simply doesn't believe that Vasiliy Lomachenko, the undisputed lightweight champion, has the "dog" in him to overcome him. On May 20 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) is marginally favoured to defeat Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs), but Lopez believes Lomachenko will win the bout.
Lopez, who defeated Lomachenko by unanimous decision in their 12-round lightweight title battle two and a half years ago, gave an explanation of his reasoning during a recent visit on "The DAZN Boxing Show."
“I think I got Lomachenko winning this fight,” Lopez told co-hosts Barak Bess and Akin Reyes. “The only reason why I say it is just the punch IQ that this man throws and what he does. He’ll get you tired. Even though Devin has the conditioning for it, you gotta commit. You can’t just, you can’t play defense with Loma. You can’t play defense with Loma. You can’t. You gotta attack [by] all means necessary, and I don’t think Devin got that dog in him to do it.”
In back-to-back 12-round contests, the 24-year-old Haney defeated George Kambosos Jr. decisively on points. In November 2021 in Madison Square Garden's Hulu Theatre, Australia's Kambosos defeated Lopez, who was a 10-1 favourite, by split decision to take the IBF, WBA, and WBO 135-pound titles from him.
Lopez, 25, continues to believe that Lomachenko of Ukraine will dethrone Haney as lightweight champion. Even though Haney has a bigger height advantage over Lomachenko than Lopez had, Lopez doesn't believe that it will make a significant impact in their bout.
“The size difference is not gonna matter,” Lopez said. “Loma’s fought bigger guys than that. I mean, think about it – the Olympics, two-time Olympic gold medalist. He’s had 400-plus amateur fights. He’s been in the pro game, I mean, three-divisional champion, all those things. I mean, he’s fought tall, small, all the guys that you could think of. I just don’t think – even though Devin has a good jab, he’s too scared to commit all the way with it.”
As much as Brooklyn's Lopez (18-1, 13 KOs) enjoys watching Haney-Lomachenko, he must concentrate on his own important battle.
On June 10, he'll take on Josh Taylor, a Scottish southpaw who has a record of 19-0, 13 knockouts. Their 12-round, 140-pound title fight will air on ESPN from The Theatre at Madison Square Garden.