Moments after lightweight king Devin Haney successfully defended his undisputed title against Vasyl Lomachenko, the Ukrainian phenom was asked how Haney stacks up with the other fighters he’s faced.
Rather than answering the question directly, ‘Loma’ seemed to suggest that lightweight contender Jamaine Ortiz was a tougher foe.
“You know what? I want to see Haney fight Ortiz,” answered Lomachenko. “It would be very interesting.”
Lomachenko would know. ‘The Technician’ gave Loma all he could handle last October, losing a close decision by the slimmest of margins.
Ortiz, who returns to the ring on June 10th on the Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez undercard at Madison Square Garden, is up for the task, posting on Instagram that he thought Lomachenko won on Saturday and challenging Haney to face him next.
“I think it’s a great fight,” stated Ortiz of a fight between him and Haney. “I would give [Haney] a run for his money. Let’s make it happen!”
When asked to elaborate, the 27-year-old doubled down on his chances of dethroning Haney.
“You can go back to when I fought in 2020 – I was saying that I wanted to fight Haney,” explains Ortiz. “Styles make fights, and I always knew based on our styles that I would beat him. Lomachenko knows that I would whoop Haney’s @ss too.”
In addition to the contrast in styles, the Worcester, MA native gained confidence from how Haney fared against Lomachenko compared to his performance against the Ukrainian.
“Lomachenko controlled the fight and landed way more clean shots against Haney than he did against me,” states Ortiz. “Lomachenko never got behind me, spun me or controlled the pace with me like he did with Haney. I was dictating most of our fight. Loma landed a few clean shots on me towards the end of our fight, but he never landed flurries or threw 5 and 6 punch combinations the way he did against Haney. He would only throw one or two punches at a time against me because he was wary of what I was throwing back.”
Ortiz, who is now co-promoted by Top Rank and CES Boxing, is more than ready to face “The Dream” for the undisputed lightweight title. The question remains: Is Haney going to accept the challenge?
