Shortly after Teofimo Lopez Jr. shocked the world by defeating Vasiliy Lomachenko on Oct. 17, the commentary team designated Lopez as the “undisputed” lightweight champion as he added the WBA (Super), WBO and The Ring lightweight titles to his IBF championship.
While many ran with the narrative, there was one thing missing to determine an undisputed champion: the WBC title that belongs to Devin Haney.
Haney won the vacant interim title with a brutal fourth-round knockout of Zaur Abdullaev in September 2019 and was later elevated to full champion after Lomachenko was promoted to “Franchise Champion,” which is a fictional title that cannot be lost in a fight.
It’s a complicated matter but one that Haney is eager to clear up ahead of his title defense against Yuriorkis Gamboa on Nov. 7 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Fla., live on DAZN.
“I think it’s Top Rank’s fault for the confusion,” Haney told DAZN News ahead of Saturday’s clash with Gamboa. “The WBC calling Lomachenko a ‘Franchise Champion’ only threw a loop into everything. If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have all this confusion.
“We never had any of this before. The ‘Franchise Champion’ doesn’t have a mandatory, you can’t petition to fight for it and it can be passed on between people? This is some crazy stuff.”
Title confusion continues to be an issue in boxing when fans find it difficult to figure out who the top fighter is. Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s recent rant about the sanctioning bodies making a mess out of things is something that Haney agrees with because he believes there should only be one champion.
“People thought I would be mad about what Floyd said but it’s the truth,” Haney said. “I never asked for Lomachenko to get elevated. I was in the WBC tournament and worked my way up to become his mandatory challenger. He’s the one who asked for that designation, we should be mad at him.
“Y’all should be mad at Teofimo Lopez for this ‘Franchise’ s—. I never asked for it and did everything I was supposed to do in order to fight for the WBC world title.”
Haney is clearly frustrated but is targeting Lopez next should he successfully defend his title on Saturday night to finally determine the real undisputed champion of the division. However, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has stated that he’s more interested in scheduling a fight between Lopez and Ryan Garcia — who faces Luke Campbell in December — rather than an undisputed title showdown with Haney because of Garcia’s popularity.
It’s a notion that Haney scoffs at.
“Bob Arum has never said that he has ever wanted to do business with me,” he said. “It shows you that there’s something there that is bigger than boxing between me and him. But that’s OK. It is what it is.
"They are all going to have to fight me eventually.”