Roy Jones Jr. agrees with Teofimo Lopez Jr.'s assertion that his lightweight rivals need to show something special before they can just walk over the challenge the unified champion, but believes that Devin Haney is close to having all the tools required to do exactly that.
Jones, who recently returned to the ring for an exhibition bout against Mike Tyson that was well received by the boxing community, called into the Ak and Barak Show (on DAZN and Sirius XM Fight Nation) to discuss the sheer volume of young, exciting and undefeated talent at 135lbs.
On Lopez recently claiming the likes of Haney, Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis need to win more big fights before getting a shot at him, Jones said: "I agree with Teofimo 100% because [Vasyl] Lomachenko was the man and Teofimo beat him. That makes him the man at lightweight.
"He isn’t saying the others can’t fight, but he took on the best lightweight out there. Now the rest of them have gotta do something to show they can step up to that level and that they’re worthy of challenging Lopez."
Jones believes Haney, who currently holds the WBC title that contests Teofimo's claim to be undisputed, stands the best chance of dethroning the Honduran-American if he can find one missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle."Devin is a great boxer," explained Jones. "He doesn’t quite have the power the others have yet, but he’s getting there and he’s definitely an awesome technician.
"He’s younger, but he’s been there in Las Vegas where all the big fights come through and he’s watched them all. He’s experienced ahead of his years. The only thing left is his punching power.
"If he can develop that, he will be great because he’s already one of the most athletically-gifted guys in the whole division. But whether he can put it all together is what we need to see."
Jones also discussed his career and accomplishments, Black History Month and more with A&B. Watch the entire interview, plus Eddie Hearn's appearance on the show, with a DAZN subscription (note: users in Argentina, Chile and Colombia must download the app to a device via App Store or Google Play to subscribe to DAZN).