Devin Haney could be on a tantalising collision course with Shakur Stevenson after his thrilling victory over Vasyl Lomachenko.
The undisputed men’s lightweight champion retained his world titles for the second time by controversially edging an absorbing tactical battle at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night, moving to 30-0.
Former featherweight and super-featherweight world champion Stevenson was in attendance at ringside as talk continues to build of a potential blockbuster future showdown between the unbeaten American rivals, stating a belief shared by many others - including most of the crowd - that Lomachenko had clearly won the fight.
“He [Lomachenko] won. He won that fight,” Stevenson told ESPN inside the ring. “He landed the cleaner punches, the cleaner shots on Dev. He pushed the pace.”
Haney now faces an agonising decision about whether to remain at lightweight or else choose to voluntarily vacate his belts and move up to the 140lbs division, having reiterated his struggles to make the weight.
If he chooses to remain in arguably boxing’s most stacked division, then there are a multitude of huge fights that could be made - not least against the likes of Stevenson and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, who dominated Ryan Garcia last month.
“Let’s make it happen, I think that’s the fight that should happen next,” Stevenson said of facing Haney. “Devin is not on my level and I’m going to show it.
“He’s a tough fighter but it’s a high skill level within me and I feel like he’s not on my level. Bill [Haney, Devin’s father and trainer] called me out after my last fight [against Shuichiro Yoshino in April] and now I’m here, and they ran out of the ring.
“They saw me just now, they said something and ran out of the ring. They got a little scared. I can’t wait.”
Asked about his future plans after squeezing past Lomachenko, Haney said: “I’ve been at 135 for a long, long time. This was my 30th fight, I’ve been here at 135 since I was 16 years old. We need to go back to the lab and figure out what’s next.
“It’s always been tough for me to make the weight and I’ve accomplished everything at 135. I’ve just beaten a future Hall of Famer. This is my eighth title defence, so we’ve just got to see.
“There’s a lot of great fighters still in the 135-pound division, so we’ll see. If it makes sense, then we’ll be at 135.
“We’ve got to see and go back to the drawing board. We’ve got fighters like Shakur, we’ve got fighters like Gervonta. The list goes on and on.”
There was one brief exchange between Haney and Stevenson inside the ring on Saturday, with the champion barking at his rival: “I’m number one.”
A smiling Stevenson repeatedly responded: “For now.”
