Eddie Hearn: "Devin Haney is just one breakout fight from proving he is best in 135lb division"

Devin Haney could face Teofimo Lopez next despite Ryan Garcia's mandatory status for WBC lightweight belt

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn believes that Devin Haney is just one fight from proving his supremacy as a lightweight and showing why he is the best fighter in the 135lbs division in the world.

Hearn is confident that Haney just needs a bigger profile name to solidify his status as the superstar of the division and is being consistently linked with Teofimo Lopez in recent weeks.

Haney currently holds the WBC lightweight belt and was reportedly set to face Ryan Garcia who defeated Luke Campbell to claim the mandatory shot , but it appears he now may be chasing after a fight with Gervonta Davis.

The British promoter has revealed his thoughts on the current 'top four' of the lightweight division and is confident his fighter is just a few steps away from proving why he is the ultimate 'king' of the division.

He told Boxing Social : "There were a lot of unanswered questions about Devin Haney, I believe Devin Haney is the best 135-pounder in the world, but he has to prove it. And this is the frustrating thing to Devin because he wants [the big fights]. Don’t forget that he went down the WBC to fight [Vasiliy] Lomachenko to become his mandatory, and now we need that breakout fight.”

Despite lightweight Javier Fortuna also a potential opponent with his status as mandatory challenger, Hearn believes that Haney should select a more high profile route in order to ignite his bid to conquer the rivals in the stackled lightweight conundrum.

"I don’t feel that breakout fight is Javier Fortuna, who is a good fighter, but we need that breakout high profile fight,” said Hearn. “We were so happy when Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell fight got made because Devin Haney was fighting the winner. Obviously, I wanted Luke to win, but I particularly wanted Luke to win because I knew Luke would fight Devin Haney for the WBC world title.”

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