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Devin Haney is fully confident he can travel to Australia again later this year and beat George Kambosos Jr. just as handily as he did Sunday afternoon at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
According to the contract he signed late in March, Haney has to face Kambosos in an immediate rematch in Australia in his next fight if he remains within the lightweight division. Though Haney is contractually prohibited from fighting another lightweight next, the undisputed champion could relinquish his four 135-pound championships and move up to the junior welterweight division.
Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) would have to pay a financial penalty to Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs) if the unbeaten Henderson, Nevada resident moves up to 140 pounds for his next fight, but he informed BoxingScene.com on Wednesday that such a move is at least “a possibility.” The 23-year-old Haney won’t make that determination until he meets with his team in the coming weeks.
“I don’t know,” Haney said. “I’ve gotta talk to the team, meet with Bob [Arum], Top Rank, Lou [DiBella], my dad, and figure out what’s next, what makes the most sense for us and my career. So, I mean, we’re not ruling out anything. I’m willing to fight whoever, wherever. Everything just has to make sense to me and the team, but you know, we’re not ruling out anything. We wanna fight the best fighters in the world. And we’ll see. We’ve just gotta sit down and talk, and go over things.”
Though moving up to 140 pounds is one consideration, Haney could remain at lightweight for a few more fights. The Oakland native said showdowns with three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) and unbeaten knockout artist Gervonta Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) could keep him in his current weight class after he boxes Kambosos again.
If Haney moves up from the lightweight limit for his next fight, it won’t be because he doesn’t think he can get down to 135 pounds again. His new nutritionist, James Lockwood, helped him make weight more comfortably than ever for his 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Kambosos.
“Normally I do the sauna suit and the bath, stuff like that,” Haney said. “But this time around, I didn’t have to do anything. I was eating well during the whole camp, the fight week, the day before the weigh-in. I wasn’t starving or none of that. And it paid off. It showed in the fight. You know, I wasn’t weight-drained or anything like that. A lot of fights before, I wasn’t doing the proper things to cut weight. But this time around, I hired a professional to guide me and to be there with me 24/7, and the results showed.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.