For all his brewing beef with Vasiliy Lomachenko, it looks as though Devin Haney’s next fight will indeed see him face former multi-division champion Jorge Linares, as Chris Mannix reports that the two are in “advanced discussions” to meet this coming May.
While the fight was previously targeted for April 17th, the requisite conflict with Jake Paul vs Ben Askren likely made rescheduling the correct move. Sharing a May 8th card with Canelo-Saunders would make for an excellent DAZN doubleheader, though there remain a number of open dates that month for a standalone show.
Haney (25-0, 15 KO) has fought just once since undergoing shoulder surgery and simultaneously borking the WBC lightweight title picture, ending a nearly year-long layoff with a November 2020 decision over Yuriorkis Gamboa. Linares (47-5, 29 KO), whose attempt to make a name for himself at 140 pounds ended abruptly and disastrously at the hands of Pablo Cesar Cano in 2019, knocked out Carlos Morales in February 2020 and was slated to meet Javier Fortuna before testing positive for COVID.
To recap, this is what the so-called “Four Kings’” futures look like at the moment.
Honestly, I’ve got no problems with Haney-Linares; the Venezuelan is an exponentially better technician than anyone Haney’s faced to date, but he’s also fragile enough for Haney to potentially knock him out and reignite the interest lost in the layoff and the Gamboa fight.