UNITED STATES: WBC lightweight champion Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney defeated former lightweight champion Jorge Linares by an unanimous decision in a 12 round main event fight at Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
All eyes were on Haney as his fight with Linares was considered to be the toughest till date. Haney who is 26-0 with 15 knockouts had a really hard time against former WBA, WBC and Ring Magazine lightweight champion Linares. He won the early rounds but at the later stages of the fight Linares accelarated and rocked Haney with some good combinations of shots. In the 10th round, Haney was seen wobbling while going towards his corner. Fortunately he was saved by the bell in that round otherwise it would have been considered as a knockout.
Meanwhile, fans were not pleased by Haney’s performance and they even said that Haney won’t be able to beat a top ranking lightweight like Ryan Garcia, Georvanta Davis or Teofimo Lopez.
Talking about Haney, Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said that now after defeating Linares, Haney will fight against the WBA,WBO,IBF and Ring magazine champion Teofimo Lopez in a lightweight title unification fight.
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But before that Lopez will be fighting against George Kambosos who is The Ring’s No. 8-ranked lightweight and mandatory challenger for the IBF title.
Their fight will take place at The Loan Depot Park, the US. The bout will be held on Saturday, June 19. Originally, the bout was scheduled for two weeks earlier on June 5.
On the undercard of this Haney and Linares event were the fights between WBC Junior Welterweight Champion Chantelle Cameron against Melissa Hernandez, Jason Quigley vs Shane Mosley Jr. in a middleweight bout and Martin J. Ward against Azinga Fuzile in a junior lightweight eliminator.
Results of this event:-
Devin Haney UD-12 Jorge Linares
Chantelle Cameron TKO-5 Melissa Hernandez
Jason Quigley MD-10 Shane Mosley Jr
Azinga Fuzile TKO-7 Martin J. Ward
Khalil Coe TKO-2 Nathaniel Tadd
