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Devin Haney vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko fight prediction, odds, start time, undercard, preview, expert picks – CBS Sports
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A young, rising star clashes with one of the greats of the previous generation on Saturday when Devin Haney defends his status as undisputed lightweight champion against former unified champion Vasiliy Lomachenko. Years in the making, the fight is a classic crossroads clash that represents different things for both men.
For Lomachenko, who has held world titles in three different weight classes since turning professional after a storied amateur career, the fight is his first — and likely only — chance to achieve his dream of becoming undisputed champion. At 35 years old and fighting two weight classes higher than what would be considered his ideal weight, the clock is ticking toward the end of his career.
Haney, meanwhile, has emerged from a chaotic lightweight mix as the man with all four world championships. However, he did so without defeating any of the men viewed as his peers at the top of the division. The fight with Lomachenko is an opportunity for Haney to further legitimize his status and continue rising up boxing’s pound-for-pound rankings.
Lomachenko has never been hesitant to seek big challenges. He fought for a world title in just his second career fight and won the WBO featherweight title in his third. After three defenses, Lomachenko moved up a division and again won gold. In that stretch, Lomachenko was not only showcasing his brilliant technical skills but also began stopping opponents, scoring eight consecutive finishes in a run that extended to his first fight at lightweight, where he stopped Jorge Linares to win the WBA world title.
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Three fights after the win over Linares, Lomachenko had added the WBO and WBC titles to his collection and took aim at becoming undisputed champion against then-IBF champion Teofimo Lopez. Lomachenko came up short on that October 2020 night, giving away too many early rounds for a late rally to make up for and suffering a unanimous decision loss.
While Lomachenko was making an effort to become undisputed, Haney was holding the WBC world title in a situation that was as confusing as it sounds.
Haney won the WBC interim lightweight title in September 2019, becoming a mandatory challenger for Lomachenko, who held the WBC world title at the time. One month later, Lomachenko accepted the WBC’s offer to be elevated to “franchise champion,” which also resulted in Haney being promoted to world champion.
“I have been calling for this fight for four years. But the time has finally come,” Haney said this week. “I take my hat off to him. I respect everything that he’s done. I respect his decision to stay and defend his country. That gave me my shot to go to Australia, so it was only right that I give him the shot as well.”
Haney had claimed Lomachenko was ducking him prior to that move and Lomachenko accepting the franchise designation, which carries with it no obligations to make mandatory defenses, only amplified Haney’s feelings.
Despite Haney being WBC world champion and the franchise championship being “non-transferrable” according to the WBC’s own rules, the sanctioning body then transferred the franchise tag to Lopez after he defeated Lomachenko and claimed it did, in fact, make Lopez an undisputed champion.
“He talks about the past, but It’s hard to say things about the past,” Lomachenko said. “You can’t change it. Even if you talk about it, you can’t change it. Only God can change it.”
Haney was eventually able to clear things up in the ring, winning all the belts from George Kambosos Jr. in June 2022 after Kambosos’ shocking upset of Lopez. There was no longer a dispute over the status of undisputed champion, Haney was king of the mountain.
Haney, still upset about his feelings that Lomachenko ducked him years ago, has spent much of the build to the fight claiming his goal is to not only defeat Lomachenko, but to force his rival into retirement.
“I want to beat him bad. I want to send him into retirement,” Haney said on an episode of Top Rank’s Blood Sweat & Tears. “Lomachenko has never been an underdog, this is the first time. This time he’s fighting a bigger guy, a strong guy, faster guy, younger guy.
“All odds are stacked against him and on May 20 I will show the world why. Whatever he brings on fight night it won’t be enough, I’m going to make him look average, I’m going to make him look ordinary. I’m gonna embarrass him and he won’t be the same.”
The undercard features a vacant title fight as a pair of super flyweights square off. Junto Nakatani and Andrew Moloney meet for the title vacated by Kazuto Ioka. Nakatani, 25, is unbeaten at 24-0 so far in his career with 18 knockouts. He’s coming off his toughest test to date against Francisco Rodriguez Jr. in November when he took home a unanimous decision. Moloney, meanwhile, has continued to impress in Australia since his trilogy with Joshua Franco three years ago. Moloney has won four in a row as he gets back to the title level.
Plus, former unified super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez is back in his debut at lightweight when he takes on Adam Lopez. Valdez is coming off his first career loss when Shakur Stevenson ended his lengthy run with the titles at 130 pounds. Now, he’s ready to begin anew against an opponent he scored a TKO against in 2019.
“I’m excited because it’s been one year since my last fight. I’m coming off a loss, so I’m motivated. It doesn’t matter if you lose. What matters is how you come back. I’m going to come back and make a statement.”
Lopez, meanwhile, has been up and down since their first meeting in 2019, going 2-2 with 1 no contest.
“I’m surprised this rematch is happening. Oscar said he’d give me the rematch after our first fight,” Lopez said. “But it never happened. We went our separate ways. But it’s coming back full circle. I think it’s great that it’s happening on this card. It’s a huge fight. People wanted to see it. I’m excited for it.”
Let’s take a closer look at the rest of the undercard with the latest odds from Caesars Sportsbook before getting to a prediction and pick on the main event.
Devin Haney (c) -280
Vasiliy Lomachenko +230
Undisputed lightweight title
Junto Nakatani -440
Andrew Moloney +340
Vacant WBO super flyweight title
Raymond Muratalla -220
Jeremia Nakathila +180
Lightweight
Date: May 20 | Start time: 10 p.m. ET (main card)
Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena — Las Vegas, Nevada
TV channel: ESPN+ PPV ($59.99)
Lomachenko and Haney are both wonderful technicians, talented and with high boxing IQs. Unfortunately for Lomachenko, he’s no longer at his peak and he’s also just not a natural lightweight. Haney is going to be much bigger on fight night and that may be the deciding factor, even not taking Lomachenko’s age into account.
Haney is a fighter who lives and dies by the jab. With a nearly six-inch reach advantage, he should be able to utilize that weapon very effectively against Lomachenko. Lomachenko needs to figure out a way past the jab and to the inside to get any work done, and Haney is very good at smothering on the inside and forcing restarts back at distance where he can pick right back up with his jab.
Lomachenko’s worst habit is his tendency to start fights very slowly. We always hear about how he is “downloading information” in the early rounds, but doing so against Lopez cost him the fight and it nearly cost him again in his most recent outing, a surprisingly narrow decision win over Jamaine Ortiz. He simply can’t afford to give away four, three or even two rounds to Haney without even making an attempt at winning the frame. Haney isn’t likely to badly fade down the stretch and allow Lomachenko to run away with the second half of the fight.
Haney was badly hurt late by Linares in the 10th round, but it’s hard to pick Lomachenko on the hopes that he can do the same when age, size and a likely inability to get rid of his slow starting style are also at play. Lomachenko should never be counted out against anyone but Haney is just a bad style for Lomachenko, especially at this point in the careers of both men. Pick: Devin Haney via UD
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In the ever-shifting MMA landscape, ranking the world’s greatest fighters might seem like a fool’s errand, but that’s exactly we’ve set out to do with the MMA Fighting Global Rankings. Here, our esteemed panel sorts out the movers and shakers from every division to provide you with the most definitive list of the best fighters on the planet.
Let’s take a look at the biggest rankings storylines from this past two-month cycle (Aug. 21 – Oct. 24).
(Ed. Note: These rankings are updated as of Nov. 20, 2023.)
Here’s what I wrote about the then-unranked Khamzat Chimaev back in August:
Fear not, Khamzat fans, should he get past Paulo Costa at UFC 294 as expected, you’ll see him snatch a cherry spot in the middleweight rankings. Until then, everyone’s favorite wrecking machine remains in limbo.
Suffice to say, things did not go quite as expected.
The good news is that Chimaev did end up fighting at UFC 294, and in an actual established weight class. The bad news is that it wasn’t against an established middleweight, but rather former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman stepping in on 10 days’ notice.
Chimaev ultimately beat Usman in a fight where he was dominant for the first five minutes and then shaky for the next 10. The result was a majority decision where one judge scored the fight a 28-28 draw, a fair score given that Chimaev had a difficult time mustering up any meaningful offense against Usman in Rounds 2 and 3. If anything, it looked as though Usman was the one building up steam as the bout came to a close, and he later lamented the lack of championship rounds, something he’d understandably grown accustomed to.
Still, a win is a win, and though our panel wasn’t quite ready to rocket him up the charts (one panelist even left him off their ballot completely), Chimaev slots in at No. 10 in his first appearance on our middleweight rankings. This may turn out to be a case of “ranking, shmankings” anyway, because UFC CEO Dana White said in the lead-up that the winner of UFC 294’s co-main event was expected to challenge champion Sean Strickland.
White wasn’t quite as emphatic when asked about that status after the fight, but regardless, Chimaev is well on his way to finally getting the chance to “smesh” someone for a belt.
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It was a fun rivalry while it lasted, wasn’t it?
In an ideal world, Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski’s second meeting would have occurred a little later in their careers, with Makhachev racking up a couple of title defenses against actual lightweights first and Volkanovski continuing his incredible championship run at featherweight. But there’s something neat about these two settling the score in a single calendar year, even if it happened under less-than-ideal circumstances and even if it resulted in Makhachev delivering a brutal head-kick knockout to win the series.
Could Volkanovski have performed better with a full camp? Undoubtedly. Does the best version of Volkanovski beat Makhachev in their rematch? That, we don’t know, but the reality is they’ve met twice in the octagon and twice Makhachev has been the better man. Accept this and move on, is my advice.
That’s what’s best for the lightweight division, with Makhachev hopefully sticking around at 155 pounds to defend against Charles Oliveira or Justin Gaethje or maybe even past opponent Arman Tsarukyan somewhere down the line. Makhachev has also spoken about moving up to welterweight in the event that Colby Covington takes that title from Leon Edwards, which would undoubtedly intrigue the matchmakers (even if might make a few fans’ eyes roll).
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There was a time when light heavyweight and women’s bantamweight were marquee divisions. I swear this was a thing.
While there may be no hope for women’s 135 (Julianna Peña vs. Raquel Pennington for the vacant title when?), 205 has been sooooo close to being great again. However, injuries to stars Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill led to a calamitous series of events that have left the light heavyweight title in limbo, and though it should find a home soon when Prochazka fights Alex Pereira for a vacant strap at UFC 295 next month, would anyone be shocked if more craziness ensued?
That was certainly the case this past Saturday when Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker met in a pivotal bout that was sure to crown the next challenger for the aforementioned title, but it just couldn’t be that easy. No, the fighters had to deal with a restless ringside physician who was compelled to interject himself into not one, but two fights in Abu Dhabi. In Walker’s case, he saw his night end unceremoniously when the doctor ruled that he was unable to continue after taking an illegal knee from Ankalaev despite Walker’s protests.
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Blame the doctor all you want, but it just feels like this division has been cursed since Prochazka vacated the title last November after suffering a shoulder injury. We’re all praying that his fight with Pereira has a conclusive result, but at this point I’m expecting them to land simultaneous spinning head kicks and both to end up flat on the canvas.
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Check out the complete October rankings update below.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 3 Ciryl Gane def. No. 10 Serghei Spivac, No. 8 Alexander Volkov def. No. 7 Tai Tuivasa
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic (UFC 295, Nov. 11), No. 6 Jailton Almeida vs. No. 14 Derrick Lewis (UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 4)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Phil De Fries (5), Alexandr Romanov (2)
(Heavyweight rankings updated Nov. 12 after UFC 295.)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 3 Magomed Anklaev vs. No. 9 Johnny Walker ends in no-contest, No. 12 Anthony Smith def. No. 13 Ryan Spann, No. 15 Volkan Oezdemir def. Bogdan Guskov
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Jiri Prochazka vs. No. 5 Alex Pereira (UFC 295, Nov. 11)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Rob Wilkinson (2), Azamat Murzakanov (1), Khalil Rountree (1), Thiago Santos (1)
(Light heavyweight rankings updated Nov. 12 after UFC 295.)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 9 Sean Strickland def. No. 1 Israel Adesanya, No. 5 Johnny Eblen def. No. 14 Fabian Edwards, Khamzat Chimaev def. No. 2 WW Kamaru Usman
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 11 Brendan Allen vs. Paul Craig (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Paul Craig (3), Nassourdine Imavov (3), Ikram Aliskerov (1), Kelvin Gastelum (1), Jack Hermansson (1), Bo Nickal (1), Kamaru Usman (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Khamzat Chimaev def. No. 2 Kamaru Usman (middleweight bout), No. 13 Jack Della Maddalena def. No. 15 (tied) Kevin Holland
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 4 Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. No. 7 Stephen Thompson (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 5 (tied) Yaroslav Amosov vs. No. 15 Jason Jackson (Bellator 301, Nov. 17), No. 8 Sean Brady vs. Kelvin Gastelum (UFC Austin, Dec. 2), No. 10 Vicente Luque vs. No. 11 Ian Machado Garry (UFC 296, Dec. 16)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Sadibou Sy (4), Andrey Koreshkov (1), Neil Magny (1), Magomed Magomedkerimov (1), Michael Page (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 1 Islam Makhachev def. No. 1 FW Alexander Volkanovski, No. 6 Usman Nurmagomedov def. Brent Primus, No. 8 Mateusz Gamrot def. No. 7 Rafael Fiziev, Bobby Green def. No. 11 Grant Dawson
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 12 Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Clay Collard (PFL 10: 2023 Championships, Nov. 24), No. 13 (tied) A.J. McKee vs. Sidney Outlaw (Bellator 301, Nov. 24)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Benoit Saint-Denis (4), Grant Dawson (3), Renato Moicano (3), Drew Dober (2), Matt Frevola (2), Alexander Shabliy (2)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Islam Makhachev def. No. 1 Alexander Volkanovski (lightweight bout), No. 2 Max Holloway def. No. 11 (tied) “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung 26), No. 11 (tied) Giga Chikadze def. Alex Caceres, No. 13 Bryce Mitchell def. No. 15 Dan Ige
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 8 Josh Emmett vs. No. 11 Giga Chikdaze (UFC 296, Dec. 16)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Edson Barboza (3), Lerone Murphy (2), Adam Borics (1), Jonathan Pearce (1), Chihiro Suzuki (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): N/A
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 5 Patchy Mix vs. No. 6 Sergio Pettis (Bellator 301, Nov. 17), No. 10 Rob Font vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC Austin, Dec. 2), No. 13 Raufeon Stots vs. Danny Sabatello (Bellator 301, Nov. 17)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Pedro Munhoz (3), Magomed Magomedov (2), Ricky Simon (2), Juan Archuleta (1), Chris Gutierrez (1)
(Bantamweight rankings updated Nov. 18 after Bellator 301.)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 11 Manel Kape def. Felipe dos Santos, No. 13 Muhammad Mokaev def. No. 14 (tied) Tim Elliott
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 2 Alexandre Pantoja vs. No. 8 Brandon Royval (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 4 Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Rob Font vs. (bantamweight bout) (UFC Austin, Dec. 2)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Azamat Kerefov (3), Kairat Akhmetov (2), Azat Maksum (1), Jeff Molina (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Nora Cornolle def. No. 15 Joselyne Edwards
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 6 Irene Aldana vs. No. 7 Karol Rosa (UFC 296, Dec. 16), No. 11 Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila (UFC Austin, Dec. 2), No. 13 (tied) Lucie Pudilova vs. Ailin Perez (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Tainara Lisboa (5), Serena DeJesus (1), Claire Guthrie (1), Olga Rubin (1), Taneisha Tennant (1), Darya Zheleznyakova (1)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 1 Alexa Grasso vs. No. 2 Valentina Shevchenko ends in a split draw, No. 3 Erin Blanchfield def. No. 4 Taila Santos, No. 5 Manon Fiorot def. No. 5 SW Rose Namajunas, No. 6 Liz Carmouche def. Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, No. 14 Viviane Araujo def. No. 10 Jennifer Maia
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 12 Juliana Velasquez vs. Paula Cristina (Bellator 301, Nov. 17), No. 13 (tied) Amanda Ribas vs. Luana Pinheiro (strawweight bout) (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Casey O’Neill (6), Karine Silva (2)
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): 5 WFLW Manon Fiorot def. No. 5 Rose Namajunas (flyweight bout), No. 10 Marina Rodriguez def. Michelle Waterson-Gomez, No. 15 (tied) Loopy Godinez def. Elise Reed, No. 15 (tied) Xiong Jing Nan def. Nat Jaroonsak (special rules striking match)
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 5 Jessica Andrade vs. No. 9 Mackenzie Dern (UFC 295, Nov. 11), No. 12 Angela Hill vs. Denise Gomes (UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 4), No. 13 Tabatha Ricci vs. No. 14 Loopy Godinez (UFC 295, Nov. 11), Amanda Ribas vs. No. 15 Luana Pinheiro (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Karolina Kowalkiewicz (3), Emily Ducote (2), Xiong Jingnan (2), Gillian Robertson (2), Michelle Waterson-Gomez (2)
A refresher on the ground rules:
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