The only two men to have beaten Vasiliy Lomachenko (17-3) in the past nine years are Teófimo López (20-1) and Devin Haney (30-0). In both cases, López and Haney narrowly survived a highly contested twelve-round bout that many pundits believe should have resulted in a victory for Loma. Immediately following Loma's controversial loss to Devin Haney on May 20th, Shakur Stevenson (20-0) hopped into the ring, and starred Haney down, prompting the champ to say, "I'm number one." Shakur famously replied, "For now," indicating that Haney's reign atop the lightweight division was about to end. Shakur's proclamation has come to fruition, but not in the way he predicted. Haney's decision to move up in weight class to fight Regis Prograis for the WBC junior welterweight championship in lieu of defending his undisputed lightweight title against Shakur (in a mandatory challenge) may have created an opportune moment for his rivals to capitalize on.
While many expected Haney to vacate his undisputed lightweight title ahead of his October 28th showdown with Prograis, the 24-year-old petitioned with WBC officials to retain all of his lightweight championship belts. Upon review, the WBC determined that Haney is the "champion-in-recess." In the meantime, the WBC is reportedly looking to order a match between Stevenson and Loma to settle who will gain control of Haney's crown. But, because Haney is now the "champion-in-recess," he can move back down in weight class and challenge the winner if he chooses to.
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