Devin Haney//Billy Joe Saunders - DAZN/SKY/Los Angeles 09/11/Saturday

[Fenster]

From a sold out Staples Center in Los Angeles, Devin (the next Floyd) Haney defends his mickey mouse WBC title for the first time against 12-0 (4 KOs) Dominican Alfredo Santiago and Saunders defends his mickey mouse WBO title against 28-0-1 (15 KOs) Marcelo Esteban Coceres.

Undercard features some cracking prospects who've been impressing all year.

Nikita (White Chocolate) Ababiy - this boy can seriously punch (and yes, Ron, he's my favourite because he's a white boy).
Diego Pacheco
Reshat Mati

What have you guys made of the young American prospects? They've been on all the DAZN cards?

[Spicoli]

Definitely worth a watch for Haney sake but both have the making of completely one way traffic while waiting for bigger fights. The whole card is patchwork. Has to be tough for Haney who's gone from main events on Showtime over to this buried undercard spot as an actual defending 'champion'. He came out of the shoot hot after last win calling out Loma and this doesn't exactly scream 'hey look what I bring' to a proposed super fight. Alvarez has some decent wins way back and held a trinket but be surprised if he makes distance. BJS..hey what can you say for a guy. It's better than doing random indult tirades on street walkers . Hearn wants him in the 160-168 sweepstakes and he brings a trinket but can't find Coceres in a single top 15 ranking group. The proverbial mystery man from Argentina. Looks like he did respectable at 147 but has gone 0-4 since moving up. Ronny Rios off huge ko of De La Hoya fighting Berrito on card. May turn out the best fight of the night.

[palmerq]

I've managed to miss seeing a baby every time he's been, he's always just kod someone, either I turn it on too late or I walk away for a bit and come back and it's over :S... O Ly seen him being paraded around afterwards, I thought he was Bieber at one time :S

[Master]

Devin Haney's historic first title defense is taking a backseat to KSI-Paul, but he isn't complaining

Years from now, when their status as celebrities has flamed out, boxing historians will try very hard to figure out how it was that Devin Haney, one of the sport’s most talented and personable champions, made his historic first title defense as the co-main to Logan Paul versus KSI, a pair of YouTube stars making their pro boxing debuts.

Haney won’t be 21 until Nov. 17, but on Saturday (9 p.m. ET, DAZN) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, he’ll defend the WBC lightweight title against Alfredo Santiago, in the process becoming the youngest boxer in more than 30 years to defend a world championship.

Mike Tyson — ever heard of him — became the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history on Nov. 22, 1986, when he stopped Trevor Berbick in the second round at the Las Vegas Hilton. He was 20 years and four months old.

Before he turned 21 on June 30, 1987, Tyson had made successful defenses against James “Bonecrusher” Smith and Pinklon Thomas.

Haney will turn 21 on Nov. 17, so he’ll just manage to sneak in under the finish line if he beats Santiago, as expected, and becomes the first 20-year-old since Tyson in 1986 to successfully defend a world title.

None of this surprises Haney’s father, Bill, who has expertly guided his son’s career to this point. People often tell him his son reminds them of one or another of great fighters from the past, and it’s not all that surprising considering what Bill did as Devin was on the rise.

He brought his son to a slew of elite trainers, including Floyd Mayweather Sr., Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Mike McCallum, Virgil Hunter and Roy Jones Jr.

Devin Haney had gone 130-8 as an amateur, and Bill Haney saw no reason for him to go on and, like current pound-for-pound great Vasiliy Lomachenko did, fight nearly 400 times as an amateur.

“I just didn’t think it made sense to fight 200, 300, 400 fights as an amateur and then basically perfect that amateur style,” Bill Haney said. “Devin’s muscle memory was developing and I wanted him to learn what it took to succeed in the pros. So I put Devin with all those guys and he took some things from some of them and other things from others, and he made it into a style that became his.

“We have different plays we can call now and he’s like a combination of all those guys, a lot of the greatest trainers in this sport right now. To me, that really helped accelerate his development as a pro.”



Devin Haney is 23-0 with 15 knockouts, and his quick hands are reminiscent of a young Manny Pacquiao’s. He only won a world title in his last fight, and it was an interim one at that, but he’s already among the finest overall fighters in the sport.

In addition to his blazing fast hands, Haney has an uncanny knack for putting his punches together, plus terrific footwork.

He’s fighting in a division filled with elite talent, both developed now and on the rise. But with young 20-somethings like Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia joining Lomachenko, this division has the chance to become the modern version of what the late author George Kimball dubbed “The Four Kings.”

Kimball, a long-time boxing writer for the Boston Herald, wrote a book titled “The Four Kings” about the intersection of the careers of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns. Given their ages — Lomachenko is 31, while Lopez is 22, Garcia is 21 and Haney is 20 — maybe this quartet could be dubbed “The King and the Three Princes.”

Lopez and Garcia are still developing and haven’t fought for a title yet. Lomachenko is regarded by many as the pound-for-pound best (he’s No. 3 on Yahoo Sports’ list), while Haney is a champion and moving into that territory.

Devin Haney has called out Lomachenko, who was recently elevated by the WBC to what it calls its franchise champion. That elevated Haney from interim champion to full champion. He’d have preferred to score a knockout in the center of the ring to win the full belt, but couldn’t get Lomachenko to agree to fight him.

“I hear everyone talking about him as this all-time great and the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but he didn’t want to fight a 20-year-old kid,” Devin Haney said. “I wanted that fight. I told the world I wanted that fight.”

Bill Haney praised Lomachenko, but had no qualms about putting his son in against Lomachenko now.

Lomachenko is focused on facing the winner of the Dec. 14 fight between Lopez and IBF champion Richard Commey, and hasn’t seriously considered Haney. Bill Haney, though, doesn’t put Lomachenko on the same level as he put guys like Leonard, Duran, Hagler and Hearns.

“Those guys, they were a Murderer’s Row,” Bill Haney said of ‘The Four Kings.’ “They’d send you out on a stretcher. [Top Rank’s] Bob Arum described Lomachenko as in that class and called him a generational fight. We disagree. I know he’s one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. I know he’s a very dangerous fighter, but he’s not that all-time, generational fighter yet. Not with 14 pro fights and 400 amateur fights.

“Devin could quite possibly awaken the beast that is Loma which has been dying, or at least which has been dormant in the last couple of fights. But he’ll get invigorated by a huge challenge and he knows there is greatness on the other side. He knows that. If Devin would knock out Loma right now, he’d be on the threshold of being one of the greats of the sport.”

He’s not fighting Lomachenko, though, at least not yet. And he’s not even the main event, as a pair of YouTube stars get top billing.

Devin Haney, though, isn’t complaining at this stage. He is wise beyond his years, but he’s not always going to be content playing second fiddle.

“This is a chance to expose my talents to a very large and different audience and build that fan base,” Devin Haney said. “People who haven’t seen me before, or who don’t really know me, are going to get a good look. I don’t want to make a habit of this [of fighting in the co-main], but it makes sense at this particular stage.”

He laughed before continuing.

“There are going to be some big fights coming down the road that people are going to want to see,” Haney vowed. “Nowhere else to put those but where they belong, in the main event.”

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/dev...215616830.html

[Master]

Billy Joe Saunders keen to make a big impression on KSI vs Logan Paul 2 undercard and secure Canelo Alvarez fight, says Eddie Hearn

Billy Joe Saunders’ world title defence on the undercard of KSI vs Logan Paul 2 is a good chance to raise his profile in America, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.

The WBO super-middleweight title holder will take on Marcelo Coceres at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on Saturday, ahead of the rematch between the YouTube sensations.



It will be Saunders’ first defence of his belt after beating Shefat Isufi in May.

“We are going to try and piggyback off the back of that audience to increase the profile of Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney,” Hearn told talkSPORT.

“This is Billy Joe Saunders’ first fight in America and if it was him on his own then you might have a hundredth of the audience you are going to get for this fight.

“He understands it, he gets it. It’s a really important fight for him as it is his first attempt at defending is super-middleweight world title.”

https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/6...o-eddie-hearn/

[Ron Swanson]

It’s a shame Lomachenko petitioned the WBC for the right to sanctioned ducking. It makes a person look back at Berchelt being the number 1 threat at 130 and calling for the fight only to be rebuffed. Haney just needs to look past the sanctioned ducking and build his career against those that are willing to fight. At some point at some weight people will call for Lomachenko to fight one of the best at the weight. He’s refused Berchelt, refused Garcia, refused Haney, but eventually they will have to accept a fight against someone. Then Haney has his chip, if Loma has any ambitions for anything real, not ESPN lies of an undefeated record, not WBC lies of undisputed, but something real he will have to fight for the real WBC belt. And Haney will have his chance.

Today is meaningless though, the whole damn card is a circus. DAZN isn’t getting subscriptions so they’re desperate. Maybe a circus is what they need though because their attempt at real boxing has been a disaster of epic proportions. Nobody could have imagined they would have gotten such a tiny piece of the US market. I don’t expect today to help but I’m over 40, I know nothing of what 20-30 year olds find entertaining today. If it gets subscriptions and said subscriptions leads to good fights and less stuff like allowing Chavez to fight while suspended then good, let the train wreck be over. Let the boxing begin

[Spicoli]

Saunders losing a couple of rounds to this fella . Never heard of this dude but BJS looking pretty ordinary

[armin]

I think you could have the Argentine fella up at this point but close rounds really

[Spicoli]

Missed rounds 1-3 but another tight one 7th. Thought Coceres nicked it with body shots. Good scrap for Saunders rather than some blow-bore out.

[palmerq]

Missed rounds 1-3 but another tight one 7th. Thought Coceres nicked it with body shots. Good scrap for Saunders rather than some blow-bore out.

Saunders started well

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...iled-drug-test

Totally unrelated I'm sure

[armin]

Saunders needed that stoppage momentum had shifted, Argentine looks legit and should get another opportunity because I think in his head he had already won but not realizing 2 rounds to go

[powerpuncher]

Saunders needed that stoppage momentum had shifted, Argentine looks legit and should get another opportunity because I think in his head he had already won but not realizing 2 rounds to go

He can’t be that legit if he got stopped by Saunders

[Spicoli]

Nice little sneak right working for Coceres but edged 9th to Saunders. Dye has already been cast though, no the outing Saunders was needing at all. Man Coceres going all Sergio Martinez hands at hips and clipping Saunders clean in 10th! Unknown put himself on the map and Saunders needs to get his head outta his arse here.

[Spicoli]

Well there ya go . Saunders has him in bad shape!

[Spicoli]

Way to close it out. Hearn just exhaled.