Posted on 03/01/2021
By: Hans Themistode
The moment Vasiliy Lomachenko fell from his pound-for-pound throne, the criticism has come in waves.
In what many believed would be another routine win, Lomachenko found Teofimo Lopez a much more complex puzzle to solve when the two battled it out with all of the lightweight marbles on the line in mid-October 2020.
Watching Lomachenko fall was a surprise to just about everyone. But even more of a shock is, outside of a handful of interviews, how he has virtually disappeared since the defeat. Amongst those wondering where Lomachenko has gone, is WBC lightweight champion, Devin Haney.
“Where the f*ck is Loma at?” Said Haney on his Twitter account.
Despite having close to 200,000 thousand followers on Twitter, Lomachenko seldom uses social media. This time around though, he took the time to address Haney on his own personal account.
“I’m here!” Said Lomachenko. “I’m waiting for you cowards to decide on a real fight and not on Twitter.”
For Haney, he’s heard the same thing over and over throughout the course of his short career. The talent is obvious but the names he’s fought up until this point have been underwhelming. The Las Vegas resident has called for matchups against Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez and of course, Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Yet, no matter how loud he screams for any of the big-name fighters to face him, they have all seemingly ignored him. With no marquee wins under his belt, Lomachenko is convinced that Haney is simply all bark but no bite.
“Waiting is your favorite action,” continued Lomachenko. “You still haven’t fought with anyone.”
Ironically enough, Haney was once the mandatory challenger to face Lomachenko when he held the WBC title. Although the 22-year-old planned on facing him, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman had other ideas in mind as he stripped Lomachenko of his title and instead, gifted him with the Franchise tag, a new and still confusing term fans are trying to wrap their heads around.
With the WBC title now vacant, Haney, who was the interim belt holder, was then elevated to full champion. Since then, he’s gone on to defeat journeymen Alfredo Santiago and the long-faded former multiple division champion Yuriokis Gamboa.
He may won have every single round against both fighters but Lomachenko doesn’t appear to be impressed. In fact, fighters such as Lopez have said that Haney is nothing more than an email champion since his title reign began with an email notifying him that he had become a full belt holder.
Helping him in his efforts to shut up the doubters could be former multiple division champion Jorge Linares. Both camps are currently locked in negotiations for an April clash.
As for Lomachenko, he appears to have his eyes on Haney. Those plans however, could be forced to wait as promoter Bob Arum has already said that he plans on matching up Lomachenko with top contender Masayoshi Nakatani who is coming off an upset win over once highly touted prospect Felix Verdejo.