“Lomachenko can break him mentally.” Donaire breaks down Haney vs Loma fight

Former world champion in three categories, Filipino Nonito Donaire (42-7, 28 KOs) had a conversation with an American reporter.

IN
interview Nonito commented on the duel scheduled for May 20 between the undisputed lightweight champion (up to 61.2 kg) from the USA Devin Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) and the former holder of three titles Ukrainian Vasily Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs). Donaire assessed the actions of the boxers in past fights, tried to predict the course of the future fight and the options in which the fighters could win.

– We have a Haney-Lomachenko fight ahead of us. There are so many thoughts people have on this subject. What are your thoughts?

“I think the way Haney fought Kambosos, with that jab and keeping his distance, he can do it with Lomachenko as well. Because Lomachenko has a high block, and when you hit… That’s the difference with Tank (Davis). When you hit a Tank and miss, he immediately ends up in front of you. But when a fighter like Lomachenko blocks a punch, goes to the side, you can still hit him and push him. In this case, you can jab the whole fight. Jab the whole fight, move the whole fight and win on points. I think this will happen. If Lomachenko doesn’t adapt, he won’t dodge Haney’s punches.

But once again, if Haney doesn’t put enough power into his punches, Lomachenko will go after him. This is also a big difference. When Lomachenko fought Teofimo, he was very afraid. He didn’t press like he usually did in the past until it was near the end of the fight. He’s good when he starts to apply pressure. If Haney doesn’t push enough, Lomachenko will press back. He’ll go in between those Haney punches.

That’s why people argue when it comes to this fight. Who will enter this ring? That good old Lomachenko or Lomachenko, who returned to boxing again. That’s why people pick Haney as their favorite. Because Haney has the move, Haney has the jab. But the moment Lomachenko feels this confidence, I think it will be very difficult to stop him if you do not have the power that he can respect.

“Lomachenko looked terrible.” Stevenson shared his prediction for the fight between Vasily and Haney

– Right. With all these veteran fighters… they’re giving away those rounds and that’s what Loma did. Respect to Jesse Hart! Based on what he said, we were looking at the Teofimo fight. Loma hit the breaker in the seventh round. He waited. What are your thoughts on this, because when it came to getting into the fight with Ortiz, I never really saw it, and I watched the fight in the hall.

“He just needs to turn on. This is because he has amazing defense. Haney is a distance fighter. He throws punches from a distance. When he is infighting, he can take hits. Haney has no power in infighting and won’t be able to do much because he has long arms. Now the point here is how early Lomachenko will turn on, because this is what he can pose a threat with and level all of Haney’s weapons. If he kind of waits until he feels like he needs to move forward while Haney throws that jab… it might be too late. I think he won’t have as much respect with Haney as he did with Teofimo.

If Lomachenko starts early, I think he will fall asleep to Haney, because he has shorter arms, and he will continue to land and deliver these punches. If not, and he will just stay in that distance and try to move between punches, waiting for something instead of pressing, then Haney will win many rounds until Lomachenko starts to turn on. Just a jab, a move, a grab, a move is what Haney is going to do, I think.

“So you choose Haney for this fight?”

– If Lomachenko turns on later.

– It’s clear. And if it turns on a little earlier than usual?

We have already seen how Lomachenko did it. With his high block… and just smash him mentally. He can do it. Because Haney wasn’t in a real fight. This is what is in question.