By Eóin Kennedy
The sun has risen on a new year and that usually means in the boxing world that some stars will come out of hibernation and start calling for big fights, after taking some rest to indulge in the festive turkey first of course. Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney have been engrossed in verbal spats for years and have started the new year in the same vein but 2025 may finally be the year where we get to see them share a ring. I’ll look at the prospect of this potential fight and weigh in on some other recent going’s on in the 10th edition of Boxing Briefs.
Teofimo vs Devin – Has the Time Come?
Back in the hellish covid era of November 2021, Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney were embroiled in one their many public spats as Lopez geared up to defend his world titles against unfancied mandatory challenger, George Kambosos. Not many expected Kambosos to upset Lopez that night, especially not Lopez himself or his father and trainer, Teofimo Sr. If they had, they wouldn’t have spent most of their energy in the build up to the fight focusing on Devin Haney and trying to build a fight that would bring them much more money than the pesky mandatory defense that was at that time a mere inconvenience to them. Kambosos upset the odds in New York that night and in doing so, drastically altered the trajectory of Brooklyn born Lopez’ career. He would have to go on a path to rediscover what made him a world champion and try and repeat the trick.
Haney was waiting in the wings for Kambosos and travelled down under to Australia twice to both relieve Kambosos of his world titles and then subsequently defend them against him in a contracted rematch. The sporadic insults between Lopez and Haney would continue in the intervening years with both men experiencing ups and downs in their careers. Lopez climbed back to the top of the sport when he beat Josh Taylor to become WBO super-lightweight world champion so he’s whistling again. Haney on the other hand is the one now on a redemptive arc. The loss to Ryan Garcia was scrubbed from the records but the footage never can be. Drugs or no drugs, what happened, happened and Haney will need to recover mentally from having his greatest weapon, his defense, nullified by such a basic boxer in Garcia. Should Lopez and Haney fight in 2025, Lopez should have the mental edge heading in.
How is Jack Catterall Still Fighting Eliminators?
It seems somewhat absurd that after being the consensus victor over Josh Taylor in his undisputed world title tilt back in 2022 and going on a run of wins over Taylor in a rematch, Jorge Linares and Regis Prograis in a twelve-month period from October 2023 to October 2024, Jack Catterall still has to win an eliminator to get a world title shot. It has been announced that Catterall will face Arnold Barboza Jr on February 15th in Manchester, England. The fight is a WBO eliminator which means the winner gets the right to challenge Teofimo Lopez, should he still be the champion at such a time. It seems after the run of fights that Catterall has had and given his last win was over two time world champion, Prograis, that he should be now fight for a world title, not the right to do so. Lopez vs Catterall would be a fun fight, and we should be seeing it next. I fear destiny may just be cruel to Catterall and Barboza may stop him from getting a shot at the gold, which would be sickening for a man that should have been undisputed world champion three years ago. Damn you crooked judges. A true blight on boxing.
Eubank Jr vs Benn – Just Let It Go
Outside of the stakeholders that stand to make truck loads of money from a freak show fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn, no one in the boxing world seems to be really interested in in the prospect of this fight. There was no premise to the story line to begin with other than having feuding fathers once upon a time. Benn and Eubank aren’t even in the same weight class so on a boxing level it wasn’t even significant. This was and is a cash grab. Benn has only beaten stars that are over the hill or almost about to roll down. His status in the sport has been a product of a well orchestrated marketing campaign by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom but no matter how many times Hearn looks down the barrel of a camera and tells you it’s the second biggest fight in British boxing (Fury vs Joshua is number 1 again) doesn’t mean you have to care. Benn’s team know that he can’t live with the champions at welterweight such as Jaron Ennis, Eimantas Stanionis or Mario Barrios, so they’ve put all their eggs in one basket and are desperately trying to secure the cash grab Eubank Jr fight. English fans will turn out as they’ve been so starved of shows since the Saudi takeover in boxing. Let’s hope we don’t see it though. It’s time for Eubank Jr to chase a world title, once and for all.
Dave Allen and Johnny Fisher to Run it Back
If English fans are longing for the days of regular arena shows, well then 2025 may provide more of what they’re looking for. Catterall will be bringing big-time boxing to Manchester as discussed and Eddie Hearn has spoken of his desire to make a rematch between Dave Allen and Johnny Fisher in London later this year. Allen and Fisher are two of British boxing’s cult hero’s of recent years and even though there was some controversy surrounding who the rightful winner should have been in the first fight, the good news is it looks like we will be treated to an immediate rematch. Allen has confirmed that Fisher made contact and is game for it and Hearn is already speculating on venues in interviews. These two headlining in London would definitely provide an incredible atmosphere and maybe even Big John Fisher and Gareth A. Davies could bury the hatchet, and GAD may be welcome back in the Fisher house. Who knows.