Boxing
Devin Haney defends tactics vs. George Kambosos, says his jab was all he needed
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There is no disputing who is the number one lightweight boxer in the world after Saturday's result Down Under. However, there has still been a lot of debate about four-belt champion Devin Haney's fighting style.
The American's 12-round decision win over previously-unbeaten home hope George Kambosos Jr. was a boxing clinic that had the purists in awe, but was far from the most exciting contest of 2022 so far. As a result, some fans have criticised the manner in which he unified the 135lbs division even though he did exactly what he set out to do, and comfortably so.
That doesn't bother Haney much, as he explained in an exclusive interview with Ak & Barak on The DAZN Boxing Show this week.
"We knew that my jab would be a weapon, and it worked," the champ explained. "But we had other stuff in the arsenal. The jab was so effective, though, I didn’t need to use those other weapons.
"Once I was able to see what I could do against Kambosos, I did want to pick it up a little in there, and up the tempo. But, I learned in the (Jorge) Linares fight that it’s important to stay disciplined and pitch a shut-out.
"And that’s what I did, stick to the gameplan.
"This is where experience comes in. You know you could pick things up and go bang with him, and you could knock him out and look like a genius. Or, you could get hurt like I did against Linares.
"Even if Kambosos didn’t hurt me at all but landed a couple good shots, people would point at those shots and ask questions.
"But now, you can’t say nothing. You can’t name a punch that George hit me with. Â
"People were asking 'why didn’t Kambosos just drag him into a fight?' But here’s the thing. I may not have tons of power, but I got enough to keep you at bay, keep you from coming in.
"And at the end of the day, he can say what he wants but he felt my power enough to know he didn’t want to just run in and get hit with it. He thought I was gonna be running around the ring and moving, moving, moving but at parts of the fight I was backing him up. I am the bigger, stronger fighter."
When asked by the presenters when exactly he felt in his mind he had the Australian all figured out, Haney's answer was pretty blunt.
He said: "I knew early on, honestly. I knew early on how easy it was for me to touch him and just out-think him.
"My IQ was on a different level. I got out ahead and I didn’t stop after that."
You can watch the exclusive Devin Haney interview in full on DAZN here.
