This ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made Devin Haney's Las Vegas hometown a shadow of its former self.
"Vegas is like ghost town," Haney tells DAZN News during a recent interview. "The Strip is closed off. I never thought that the casinos would ever close."
Yet, quarantining from the pandemic as part of society's new normal has given the WBC lightweight champion time to plot out his next moves as well. When boxing — and the world over — returns to the bustle, Haney, 21, expects to make a mandatory title defense against Javier Fortuna. From there, if "The Dream" has his way and plays his punches right, he'll check off the boxes to his hit list — one by one.
When speaking with DAZN News, Haney not only rated the best boxers in the lightweight division, but also gave the ideal order that he would want to face them after handling Fortuna.
When rating the best at 135 pounds, Haney started with himself — as most prize fighters should and would — before rattling off the rest of his short order.
"Loma (Vasiliy Lomachenko), Tank Davis (Gervonta Davis), Teofimo (Lopez Jr.), Ryan Garcia," Haney says.
"The skills speak for itself," Haney tacks on, referring to Lomachenko's ranking. "You'd be a fool to deny his skills, to question his skills. He shows ring IQ and he's very seasoned."
Then came the order in which Haney would like to fight them.
"Ryan Garcia, (Vasiliy) Lomachenko, Mikey Garcia (at 140 pounds)," Haney says.
Haney confronted Garcia in the ring following Garcia's first-round KO of Francisco Fonseca in February, and Haney made headlines with a recent text he sent to Garcia. It's Haney's hope to squeeze in the bout before 2020 ends.
"Right now, that fight is buzzing," Haney states. "I think it's one of the biggest fights in boxing. It's probably the second biggest fight after (Anthony) Joshua-(Tyson) Fury or Fury-(Deontay) Wilder. I think the biggest fight would be me and Ryan Garcia or 'Tank' (Gervonta Davis) and Ryan Garcia."
Haney is shrewd and telling with his order, considering Lomachenko annd Lopez are supposed to have a lightweight title unification bout when boxing resumes. By Haney listing Lomachenko, it's safe to suffice that he thinks Loma will get by Lopez to own three out of the four major lightweight world titles. If that indeed does turn out to be the case, then Haney would face Lomachenko with undisputed lightweight glory on the line.
Although, he has his doubts that he'll even get the opportunity, with both champs under Bob Arum's Top Rank.
"To be honest, I'm really not interested in that fight (Lomachenko-Lopez) because neither one of those guys are interested in fighting me," Haney says. "Bob Arum shows no interest in putting either one of those guys in the ring with me. Who knows if I'll ever get the winner."
If he does get a shot at becoming a young undisputed champion, Haney says facing Mikey Garcia at 140 pounds would be the best way to move up to super lightweight.
While it's great to plot and lay out the ideal blueprint, the business of boxing could throw Haney's map awry. But there's no doubt that the lightweight division should pack its fair share of fireworks over the next few years.
"There's so many," Haney says, pausing a bit, "big fights to be made."