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LAS VEGAS – Devin Haney and his team have heard this song before—in fact from the same opposing promoter.
The unbeaten WBC lightweight titlist once again listened to claims from Golden Boy Promotions insisting that Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz will emerge victorious in Saturday’s DAZN main event from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It’s in line with the same guarantee offered by Golden Boy executive matchmaker Robert Diaz regarding former three-division titlist Jorge Linares, whom Haney outpointed in this very town a little more than six months ago.
“Mr. Diaz once again is dressed marvelous—but different suit, same sh… same soup, reheated with what he’s saying,” Bill Haney, Devin’s father and head trainer told BoxingScene.com and other reporters ahead of this weekend’s main event. “He said the same thing about Jorge Linares, that he was gonna come and stop Devin. He didn’t.
“No different with JoJo Diaz. We look forward to Devin impressively putting on an ass whipping on JoJo Diaz and then just give us the title of Golden Boy killer.”
Haney (26-0, 15KOs) attempts the fourth defense of the WBC title he has held since late 2019, fighting for the second straight time in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas. In his most recent start, Haney turned way the challenge of Linares, surviving a rocky moment late in the fight to take a well-earned decision.
The pre-fight talk surrounding that fight was that Linares (47-6, 29KOs) and Golden Boy both enjoyed a sterling track record versus Matchroom Boxing fighters. Haney was also supposed to be in for the toughest challenge of his career, which is the same theme that has been carried out throughout this promotion.
Haney never loses focus of the task in front of him, and also learns from the mistakes made by others. A harsh reminder of concentrating on the present came just one week ago, when a fully charged George Kambosos Jr. dethroned lineal/WBA “Super”/IBF/WBO/WBC “Franchise” champion Teofimo Lopez Jr. in a massive upset last Saturday at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City.
Anyone banking on a similar letdown this weekend will have to look elsewhere.
“We’re ready for a motivated JoJo Diaz, a(n) Olympian and what we call a bad motor scooter,” notes the elder Haney. “He’s been bad for quite some time. He has a legendary reputation for his work ethic both in the ring and in the gym. He runs people out the gym.
“I did my homework on him. He’s gonna come to fight. That’s going to bring out the best in Devin Haney.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox