Devin Haney should stay at lightweight, according to former light middleweight champion Sergio Mora.
Mora had his own struggles with making weight after the early stages of his career, and Haney looked drained in his previous match-up, against George Kambosos Jr in their rematch last year.
However, he looked stronger in his fight at the weekend, against the former unified champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, and as the still undisputed champion at lightweight, he was confronted in the ring by a potential future opponent, Shakur Stevenson.
Stevenson himself moved up from junior lightweight, and there have been suggestions that the unbeaten Haney could go up to 140lbs in order to find high-profile opponents and at a less exacting weight.
However, Mora was so impressed by Haney’s efforts on Saturday that he believes he should stay at 135, and reeled off a number of potential fights that could still be made.
He told JABS on DAZN: “He should stay at 135, he’s the one to beat, he’s the one with all the belts. He’s 24 years old, in the prime of his career. He has [Gervonta] ‘Tank’ Davis, it will be the most marketable fight in boxing. He has Shakur Stevenson, licking his chops.
“If you want a popular stay-busy fight, you’ve got the Ryan Garcia comeback fight, you’ve got amateur success, they both went three apiece. If you want to prove yourself, you’ve got a young buck like Frank Martin. 135 is loaded, if he moves up to 140, the sharks are going to be circling, with Teofimo Lopez, Josh Taylor and Regis Prograis.
“135 is where he should stay, because he still looked good against high-tech Loma, he didn’t look weight-drained like he did in that rematch against [George] Kambosos. Whatever he did in that last fight, that’s how he should come in in his next fight.”