Editor’s note: This article was originally published on DAZN.com.
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Teofimo Lopez defeated Vasiliy Lomachenko to become undisputed lightweight champion on Oct. 17.
Devin Haney, who defends his secondary belt against Yuriorkis Gamboa on Saturday in Hollywood, Fla., would love a shot at Lopez and all the 135-pound belts. And he thinks he knows what would happen because he has already shared a ring with Lopez.
The two young stars sparred twice before they became prominent in Las Vegas, where Lopez used to train and reside and where Haney currently lives. Who got the better of the other? According to Haney, it was him by a country mile.
“We sparred one time at this gym in Vegas,” Haney said on Wednesday’s media call to promote the Gamboa fight. “We sparred twice. And it was a boxing lesson. That’s all I can say. At the end of the day, I went in there and boxed his socks off.”
After Lopez took care of Lomachenko, the 23-year-old conducted a couple of post-fight interviews. When Haney was mentioned as a potential opponent, Lopez said he’d face him but wasn’t too keen on the idea.
Haney believes Lopez must beat him to remove any doubt that he’s a four-belt champion.
“At the end of the day, he kept saying he was willing to fight me because he knows that he gains from fighting me,” Haney said. “It’s something that he knows doesn’t feel right without fighting me for the real undisputed, and all of the belts.”
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