By Robert Segal: Devin Haney says he won’t agree to a rehydration clause if Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is interested in fighting him if he’s victorious against Vasily Lomachenko on May 20th in Las Vegas.
Haney says he “couldn’t” and wouldn’t agree to a rehydration clause to get a fight against the secondary WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis. Ryan Garcia has taken a lot of criticism from boxing fans for showing weakness by placating Tank by agreeing to a 136-lb catchweight and a 10-lb rehydration clause.
Ryan likely would have still gotten the Tank fight if he’d rejected the weight stipulations, but he weakly caved in.
Undisputed lightweight champion Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) points out that he’s the guy with all hardware at 135, and if Tank Davis attempts to insist on a rehydration clause as a condition to fighting him, he’ll be out of luck. Haney will move on.
Haney will defend against Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) on ESPN+ PPV at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“We got to see. Loma is no slouch. He’s not someone that you can go in there and do whatever you want to do with,” said Devin Haney to the media when asked if he believes he can knock out Vasily Lomachenko.
“It takes strategy and a lot of skills, and we got to see. If the opportunity presents itself, of course. He has skills, he has IQ, and a great amateur pedigree, but what you did in the amateurs doesn’t matter,” Haney continued about Lomachenko.
“This is now and against a young, hungry lion that’s going into his prime and ready for whatever he brings. We got to see. I like working with Top Rank and ESPN. We got to see what’s next. It all starts with May 20th. Of course, I got to be victorious. We got to see.
“Like I said, I love working with Bob Arum, I love working with Top Rank. They’ve embraced me and treated me like family. We’ll see. Yeah, of course, I would love to stay at 135 to fight the biggest names,” said Haney when asked if he’d be interested in staying at lightweight after the Lomachenko fight to face Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
“I have to be victorious, and those fights will line up. I wouldn’t, and I couldn’t do a rehydration clause. I’m the man with the belts; I’m the man with the hardware. A rehydration clause is something I wouldn’t do,” Haney said when asked if he would agree to a rehydration clause as a condition for getting the Gervonta clash.
