Devin Haney Badly Hurt For The First Time In His Career, Still Earns Decision Win
Devin Haney had to overcome some adversity in his decision win over Jorge Linares on Saturday night.
Haney, the 22-year-old WBC lightweight champion, was having a ton of success in the fight but at the end of the 10th round he appeared to get wobbled by a punch as he stumbled his way to his corner.
“He hit me with a good shot. I faced adversity, and I got the job done,” Haney told DAZN’s Chris Mannix during his post-fight interview.
Haney had a rocky 11th round but came back to it in the 12th to win a clear-cut decision to reclaim his WBC lightweight title with a 116-112, 116-112, 115-113 decision win.
“This is boxing. You’re going to get hit with big shots,” Haney said about what happened in the 10th round. “But it’s about continuing to box smart. I didn’t get dropped. I didn’t get hurt. At the end of the day, we saw other fighters in the lightweight division get dropped.”
The main question Haney faces after his win over Linares is who is next for him. He has options like Ryan Garcia who tweeted he would’ve KO’d Haney, or Teofimo Lopez. The hope for Haney is if Lopez gets past George Kambosos Jr. on June 19 they would fight to unify the lightweight division.
“If Teofimo Lopez is next, let’s do it,” Haney said. “If Teofimo wants to get it next, let’s do it for all the belts — the real undisputed.”
Haney is now 26-0 with 15 of those wins coming by KO. In his last three fights, he has gone the distance and looked unstoppable until Saturday night when Linares hurt him badly as the champ might’ve got saved by the clock.
What did you make of Devin Haney’s win over Jorge Linares? And, who do you want to see Haney fight next time out?
