Introducing Devin Haney: The boxing prodigy with Vasyl Lomachenko in his sights

Exclusive interview: The 20-year-old upstart already boasts an impressive professional record and wants to test himself against one of the greatest in history

At 20 years old Devin Haney is the future of boxing, but the rising star found his way into the sport in a predictably old-fashioned way.

An impetuous schoolboy with a quick temper and fast hands, Haney often found himself in trouble growing up in Oakland, California, before moving to Las Vegas with his father. And so one day, his dad decided to drag him into his local gym.

It was a seemingly inconsequential decision that would change both of their lives forever.

“I sparred on my first day at the age of seven, my dad took me to the gym because I was having a lot of problems outside of school,” Haney, the WBC interim lightweight titlist with a professional record of 23-0, tells The Independent.

“My dad said ‘you like to fight a lot? I’m going to take you to the gym and you can fight someone who really knows how to fight. Every time you fight at school, I’m going to bring you back to the gym.’”

In typical Haney fashion, the young, confident and brash newcomer had no problems settling in. “On my first day, they put me in there to spar a kickboxer but he was working on his standup game, and when I hit him I literally hit him out of his shoes, he had on some velcro and he went out.”

Haney is in London to sell himself to the UK public. He has already sparred with the three-time world champions Ricky Burns, performed a media workout at the underground Rathbone Boxing Club in London and spent some of his hard-earned cash in Harrods.

A win over the Russian Zaur Abdullaev just two weeks ago has further helped to boost his profile. The 20-year-old nicknamed ‘The Truth’ made his opponent retire in between rounds after punishing head and body punches meant he could take no more.

Now, one of the greatest boxers the world has ever seen awaits. The imperious Vasyl Lomachenko currently holds the WBA (Super), WBO and WBC lightweight belts, having previously been the WBO featherweight and junior lightweight world champion. He is ranked as the world’s best active boxer, pound for pounds, by ESPN, the Boxing Writers Association of America, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and The Independent.

And yet Haney and his team thinks that he can beat him.

“Lomachenko don’t want none of this work,” Haney’s team cry as he pounds the heavy bag, grunting heavier and heavier with each blow.

Haney stands as mandatory challenger to Lomachenko’s WBC title, and he doesn’t want to waste time.

“My body is still growing, maturing and I’ve been saying that 135lbs is not easy for me to make. I don’t know how much longer I can be there, once I’m bumped up to world champion, hopefully I can unify or see what happens but I will not move up to 140lbs without becoming world champion. I’m taking every weight class at its time and I will become a multi-division, multi-title world champion.”

Vasyl Lomachenko stands in his way (Getty)

Despite being just 20, Haney already has a storied professional record. He joined the pro ranks aged just 16, meaning that he was too young to fight in his native country. Instead, he travelled south of the border, spending his formative months in the sport fighting faceless Mexicans at the Billar El Perro Salado, a small club in Tijuana.

“Two years before the Olympics they changed the minimum age to 19, I was 17 around the last Olympics,” Haney says, disappointed to not have the chance to represent his country.

“They changed the age and took headgear off but it’s alright, I’m OK with it and how my career has gone so far. I’m OK with not going to the Olympics.”

Haney is the youngest in a hungry trio of fighters coming up in the lightweight ranks. Future bouts against 21-year-old Ryan Garcia and 22-year-old Teofimo Lopez already appear inevitable.

Devin Haney is a future star (Getty)

“Teofimo is a good, young fighter. He’s doing good, he has a world title fight [against IBF champion Richard Commey] and I think he’s going to win. Of course [it’s a fight I want], we’ll see what happens.

“2020, three fights. Luke Campbell, Ryan Garcia, Lomachenko. Those are three fights that the fans would love to see.”

Garcia poses a different challenge, a fighter with an appeal a casual audience can get behind. He is a social media superstar with more than 3 million Instagram followers along with a popular YouTube show that he stars in. And Haney wants in.

“It’s a rivalry, I don’t like him,” Haney jokes before laughing his own comments off.

Eddie Hearn has snapped the American up (PA)

“I like what he’s doing, hopefully we can make that fight in 2020 or 2021, coming out of the amateurs, we’re tied so in the pros we have to break that.”

Haney will next fight on the KSI-Logan Paul rematch undercard on 9 November. The show has come under scrutiny for featuring world champions of the sport on the undercard of two YouTubers. But Haney says he is just excited by the prospect of being seen by his biggest audience yet.

“I knew who they were from the last fight they did, I didn’t get a chance to watch it but I knew who they were, the numbers they generated and how much buzz they get so I was with it right when he brought it to me.”

For Haney, the fight presents him with a chance to burst into the big time. The very fact that he will be fighting on the card is testament to his commitment and perseverance. Because – remarkably for one of the most exciting young stars in the sport – until he recently signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, he did not have a promotional company. Offers from the likes of Bob Arum, Oscar de la Hoya and Al Haymon could not tempt him, who was sold on the idea of setting himself up for life after the sport.

Posing for the crowd (Getty)

But then Matchroom USA made him an offer.

“I’m setting myself up for after boxing, I talk with Eddie a lot about when I’m done, I can’t box forever.” Hearn interjects: “He’s 20 years old living in Vegas, what would we be doing if we were 20 living in Vegas? Not what Devin Haney is doing which is getting up, running at 2am, 10-15 miles.

“His discipline is unbelievable and sometimes you’ve got to check that he’s 23-0, 20 years of age, WBC interim world champion and about to become WBC lightweight champion. I believe it will be the first of five weight class world championships, I believe he’s that good. He has that drive. When he wins a world title, he won’t be satisfied, he’ll push himself, whether that’s unifying or moving up a weight class.

“The biggest and best future of American boxing is Devin Haney, even global boxing. The hype is real.”

The 20-year-old has a long road ahead of him until all of that. But that doesn’t stop him dreaming. And given all that he has already overcome – who on earth would bet against him?

“I want my name to be mentioned with the greats,” Haney says as he finishes his workout and the crowd begins to dwindle. “When people think of Devin Haney I want them to think of him as a great fighter, they put my name with the greats of the sport, in the hall of fame one day.”