Paulie Malignaggi feels that Vasily Lomachenko will be able to test Devin Haney using his quick feet to land his shots in their fight on May 20th on ESPN pay-per-view at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Malignaggi likes the way that undisputed lightweight champion Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) controls range, but whether he’ll be able to do that against the lightning-fast Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) is the important question.
A big part of Haney’s game is the clinching he does to prevent his opponents from landing shots on him. However, unless Haney is really powerful, Lomachenko will fight through his clinches and land punches in close.
Haney hasn’t been tested yet
“I haven’t seen him pushed to another level yet,” Malignaggi said about Devin Haney on Paulie TV. “He’s talking about the guys that would push him to that level, but then he’s always fighting guys with their canes & rocking chairs, already on their way out and been on their way out.
“Haney fought [Jorge] Linares, and Lomachenko fought Linares. The Linares that fought Lomachenko is multiple levels about the Linares that fought Haney.
“You’re talking about the guy that was in his prime and on the pound-for-pound list when he fought Lomachenko, and then when he fought Haney, people didn’t even know he was still fighting.
“You got Gamboa, a guy that busted his ankle in the Tank Davis fight. He looked 100 years old there, and then Haney fought him.
“You [Haney] filled your resume with [old] names, but there were still hungry guys that you could have fought instead, like Richard Comey. You didn’t fight those guys. Those guys could have made your life more difficult.
“You fought the guys that were completely shot, but then you complain that Lomachenko was ducking you. Lomachenko was looking to unify against Teofimo Lopez. That’s not really a duck when you’re going after the more important fight with more money.
“So this guy [Haney] goes round claiming things that he knows aren’t true, saying things that he knows aren’t true, saying he had titles that he didn’t have at the time and fighting guys, and you’re like, ‘Who are you fighting?’.” said Malignaggi.
Lomachenko should be champion
“The Kambosos fight, he wasn’t supposed to get. It was Lomachenko’s fight,” Paulie said. “It wasn’t his fight. It was Lomachenko’s fight, and then the war happened. He [Haney] ended up getting the Kambosos fight instead.
“Kambosos had a good night against Teofimo Lopez, but Kambosos had been pretty ordinary before the Teofimo fight and pretty ordinary after the Teofimo Lopez fight.
“When you look at the body of work [from Kambosos], it was pretty ordinary and a guy that Lomachenko probably would have wiped clean. So you’re only the undisputed champion because Lomachenko had a war to attend to,” Malignaggi said.
Devin lacks power
“And then, you’re [Haney] talking down about this guy [Lomachenko],” Paulie said. “You’re talking about this guy like he’s some sort of mutt. You haven’t fought anybody to test yourself, and you clearly haven’t wanted to test yourself.
“JoJo Diaz was his [Haney] best opponent, but even JoJo Diaz didn’t fight a hungry fight. Haney is a good fighter, but we haven’t seen him pushed to the point he will against Lomachenko. So we’re going to get some answers.
“When you got to go to different levels, and you don’t have the firepower? I don’t know,” Malignaggi said about Haney. “He’s physically bigger than Lomachenko, but is he a physical fighter?
“All this physical size is okay, but he’s not a physical fighter. Will his physical size matter that much? It’s not a shot [right hand] that you can count on to land against Lomachenko. You have to be very, very deceptive to land it.
“I’m not saying you can’t land, but you have to be deceptive with it, and you have to land it with that same kind of power. We know Haney hasn’t had that same kind of power every single time.
“I’m not saying he [Haney] can’t hang, but I’m very curious to see how he reacts when he’s taken to this place. I like his jab. He knows how to control range very easily. The slow-footed guys like Kambosos, you eat those guys up every time.
“Lomachenko is kind of quick-footed. We’ll see how quick-footed he is at his older age,” said Malignaggi.
