Posted on 06/01/2021
By: Hans Themistode
When the dust settled between Devin Haney and Jorge Linares, the 22-year-old WBC belt holder was the last man standing. Just a few days ago, Haney outboxed his man on his way to a unanimous decision victory at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While most have lauded Haney for putting on a boxing clinic, current WBA “Regular” lightweight titlist, Rollie Romero, would rather point and criticize Haney for his performance down the stretch.
With a dominant showing during the first nine rounds, Haney was caught with a flush one, two combination at the end of the tenth. A visibly stunned Haney stumbled back to his corner at the round and appeared to be on shaky legs for the remainder of their contest. It was in those moments where Romero noticed a glaring flaw in the game of Haney.
“That’s the chiniest f*cking fighter in the game right now. How the f*ck do you get hurt by old ass Linares?”
Immediately following the win, Haney was bombarded with nonstop questions pertaining to his buckling legs in the tenth. While the 22-year-old continues to push forth the narrative that he was just fine, his actions during the contest seemed to indicate something else.
Having done more than enough in the first nine rounds, Haney appeared more interested in holding and avoiding the big shots of Linares as opposed to engaging with him. At one point during the 12th and final round, Haney did a full-on sprint to hold on to Linares as to milk the clock. His defensive strategy paid off in the end as he was awarded the biggest win of his career.
Despite Linares holding world titles in multiple weight classes and scoring several knockouts in his career, Romero doesn’t hold him in high regard. At the age of 35, Romero views Linares as essentially a shot fighter and one he was expecting Haney to get rid of at some point during their showdown.
For Romero, Haney can sit there and try to explain all he wants that he wasn’t hurt during the championship rounds. If he truly wasn’t buzzed, then Romero would simply like him to answer one obscenity-laced question.
“I really thought Haney was going to knock that boy out because Linares is dirt trash. Linares is garbage but Haney got the weakest chin in boxing. Then, he goes back and holds for the rest of the f*cking fight. If he wasn’t hurt then why the fuck did he start fighting like a b*tch?”