Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn talks to Fight Hub on his thoughts on the lightweight division and its current landscape. Hearn, who no longer promotes undisputed champion Devin Haney, says a fight against Vasiliy Lomachenko might do it for the die-hard boxing fans, but he has no doubt there’s one fight that’s head and shoulders over the rest.
“Devin Haney gets criticism for being boring but he is a brilliant fighter,” Hearn said. “Like, we’ve worked with him for a long time, he’s so smart, he’s very difficult to beat. And it’s going to take someone special to beat him – Shakur Stevenson, Tank maybe, but I don’t think so. Ryan Garcia, I don’t think so. But the biggest fight in the division by a mile is Tank against Ryan Garcia now.
“Lomachenko is a tremendous fighter. To us in boxing, Lomachenko against Haney is a great fight. It is a quarter of the fight of Tank against Ryan Garcia because you have to understand the fan bases, the mixes of personality, and Ryan Garcia brings a huge following into that fight away from boxing. And Gervonta Davis brings all of boxing and brings crowds, brings energy. It’s a brilliant fight and I don’t know how close it is.
“I hear, just like you hear, that it’s close. But that is the fight for the division. Lomachenko-Haney, great fight, not anywhere near as big as Tank against Ryan Garcia. For me that’s one of the biggest fights in the sport.
“It’s only a matter of time before Devin moves to 140 because when we were working with him I knew how tough it was, but he’s an extreme professional…but it’s going to be very interesting now because do you vacate and move to 140 and everyone will say you’ve run from Lomachenko, or do stay and fight him at 135 and it’s a 50/50 fight, right?”