By: Hans Themistode
The skills of Devin Haney have been praised long before he turned professional in 2015. So far, the immensely talented 135-pound belt holder has lived up to the hype.
With Haney on the verge of taking on George Kambosos Jr. for the remaining three lightweight titles, the 23-year-old star believes he’ll receive worldwide recognition. Still, even if Haney takes his place atop the 135-pound landscape, he doesn’t believe he should be considered the best fighter in the world. In his opinion, Canelo Alvarez has rightfully earned that distinction.
“Yes,” said Haney to a group of reporters when if Alvarez is the best fighter on the planet currently. “Yes for sure.”
Like Haney, many in the boxing world share his belief. Over the span of approximately four years, Alvarez has waltzed up and down numerous weight classes, picking up countless world titles along the way.
In 2018, Alvarez scored quality victories against Gennadiy Golovkin and Rocky Fielding. In the process, he added the WBA and WBC middleweight titles and WBA “Regular” super middleweight championship to his collection. In 2019, Alvarez grabbed more middleweight gold, before moving up to the 175-pound division to strip Sergey Kovalev of his WBO title.
From 2020 to 2021, Alvarez planted his flag firmly in the ground of the super middleweight division. The Mexican star would spend approximately the next 12 months truncating the world title reign of every belt holder, en route to becoming an undisputed champion.
For an encore, Alvarez will brazenly challenge WBA light heavyweight champion, Dmitry Bivol on May 7th. Should he walk away successfully, Alvarez is tentatively scheduled to face Golovkin at 168 pounds, before possibly making the move to cruiserweight to close out another strong year.
Considering Alvarez’s penchant for challenging world champions across multiple weight classes, Haney continues to sit back in awe. With the Mexican star willing to fluctuate his weight so consistently, Haney has no choice but to crown him as boxing’s leading man.
“He can go up and down, up and down, and still be dominant, I take my hat off to him.”