Purse bids are scheduled to take place today for Devin Haney’s maiden and mandated WBO welterweight world title defence against Keyshawn Davis. Ahead of the fight, three-division world champion Shane Mosley has doubled down on his prediction.
Haney ruled as the undisputed lightweight world champion, next stepping up to super-lightweight and dethroning Regis Prograis, before a controversial meeting with Ryan Garcia which had been planned to be his first defence of the WBC super-lightweight world title.
However, Haney then set about plans to move up to welterweight and accepted a catchweight affair against Jose Carlos Ramirez, for which he trained partly under Shane Mosley, comfortably outboxing the Avenal-born operator in a relatively dull affair and then moving on from ‘Sugar Shane’.
Last time out, Haney dominated Brian Norman Jr. to capture the WBO welterweight world title, but the Californian is yet to fight since, with a mandated defence against Keyshawn Davis now set to end that stretch of inactivity.
Yet, despite previously training ‘The Dream’, Mosley has stated that Davis’ power would be an issue for Haney in any potential fight, and in an interview with FightHype, the 54-year-old doubled down on that opinion.
“It is going to be a very difficult fight for both guys. It depends on who imposes their will on the other.
“Haney has good, fast feet and Keyshawn needs to be able to nullify those fast feet that Devin has. Once he does that, I think that Keyshawn has more power and the bigger punch, so it’s going to be a difficult fight.
“I lean towards Keyshawn Davis because he is a fighter like me. I love the way that he fights, but it can be a hard fight for him if he doesn’t do the right thing.”
It is understood that Davis has turned down a deal for his shot at Haney’s title, instead favouring his chances of obtaining superior figures from his 25% split on the purse bids, which will take place at 4pm today, though both parties can negotiate up until that point.
