During this video interview with our friends at Fight Hub TV, Devin Haney talks a bit about his upcoming bout against Yuriorkis Gamboa, why he’s not facing Gary Russell Jr., and why he doesn’t want to hear Vasiliy Lomachenko make any excuses after his loss. Check out some excerpts below...
Haney on his matchup against Gamboa:
“I feel like a lot of people are looking past Gamboa. They feel like he’s just a journeyman type of opponent but you can’t forget that in his last fight he gave Tank the toughest fight of his career. He took him 12 rounds when Tank was knocking everybody out in the first three rounds, first four rounds.
“Gamboa doesn’t come to lay down and I know that and I cannot sleep on him, and that’s why I’m training so hard and I’m dedicating myself because I know that he’s gonna come to fight. Gamboa’s the type of opponent that you’re either gonna get him or he’s gonna get you.”
On why he’s not fighting Gary Russell Jr. after their social media beef:
“Because Gary Russell really didn’t want the fight. He was just, you know, doing a lot of talking but when the action came he really didn’t want to make the fight happen.”
On him disputing Teofimo Lopez’s ‘undisputed’ lightweight status as he holds the WBC’s ‘World’ title at lightweight:
“Yeah, he has a franchise title. It’s so confusing, like you said. Nobody really understands it. This week you can’t win the franchise title, next week you can win the franchise title. It’s just so much confusing, like, it’s hard to even explain — I couldn’t explain it, Mauricio [Sulaiman] can’t even explain it to you if you really asked him.
“Loma was #1 because he didn’t face his mandatory. I was his mandatory. He got out of it, facing his mandatory, which was me, because he asked for the franchise title. So how can Loma be #1 when he had a mandatory and didn’t face him?
“When I was mandatory, when it was time to make the fight happen, he didn’t do it.”
On his thoughts on the Loma-Lopez result:
“I was surprised with what Loma didn’t do. To be honest I thought Loma was gonna win the fight. But I was surprised with how he waited so long to throw any punches, really...I take nothing away from Teofimo and what he did, because he went in there and got the win. You can’t knock him for what Loma did. But it was a lot of what Loma didn’t do, you know, Teofimo was staying busy and he hit Loma with good shots but Loma didn’t do anything for seven rounds. How can you win a fight like that?!”
On there being talks of Lomachenko’s shoulder hindering his performance against against Lopez:
“I haven’t heard him say it so I wouldn’t say it’s an excuse, but at the end of the day I think he takes his wins like he takes his losses, take it on the chin and keep it pushing. At the end of the day, if you have an injury or whatever, don’t make an excuse just because you lost. Nobody goes into a fight 100%. It’s rare that you go into a fight with nothing hurting, no injuries, no nothing. It’s just rare.”