Lightweight contender Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela believes 140-pound champions Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez don’t want to fight IBF champion Subriel Matias because he’s “too dangerous.”
Rayo says he thinks Haney and Teófimo will ignore Matías on purpose, pretend he doesn’t exist, and just talk to each other. [i.e., freeze Matias out]. They will not do anything with Matías to avoid a loss.
Matias’ recent fifth-round knockout victory over Shohjahon Ergashev last November might have scared Haney and Teofimo, as the two never mention his name now, not even to seek clout.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) recently moved up to light welterweight and fought WBC champion Regis Prograis, arguably the weakest link, to dethrone him last month on December 9.
Former undisputed lightweight champion Haney could have fought Matias, but he chose to fight the 35-year-old Prograis, which says a lot about him. Haney is now looking to fight Ryan Garcia, and that’s another weak move.
Matías will be frozen
“I like Haney or Teófimo. One or the other,” José ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela told MillCity Boxing when asked who he considered the best fighter at light welterweight. “He too. He is a great fighter,” said Rayo about Subriel Matías.
“I think they need to throw that into the mix too. I don’t think they want to go in there with him, though. No, no,” Rayo said when asked if Teófimo or Haney would want to fight Matías.
“No, it’s too dangerous and they won’t want to do it. It’s going to be like when Teofimo lost Kambosos, something like that. It will take them forever to fight this guy. I don’t think they’re going to fight him,” Rayo said, expressing doubt that Haney and Teofimo will ever agree to fight Subriel.
In Haney’s case, he won’t be fighting at 140 for much longer, as he’s already going through hell to make weight.
The ritual Haney went through to drain himself to the 140-pound limit for his fight against Prograis was concerning. Then, after gaining weight, Haney rehydrated at 165
“Yeah, they’re going to do this back and forth with each other to bury this guy as far as attention goes. They won’t pay attention to it. They are not going to want to talk about him,” Rayo said about Devin and Teófimo pretending that Matías does not exist by ignoring him, never mentioning him, which they are already doing.
“Yes, it’s nonsense,” Rayo said when asked if it’s ‘nonsense’ on the part of Teofimo and Haney when they mentioned wanting to fight Matias in the past. “Everyone points at each other. Just fight.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but this group of people has to fight. Kambosos is a good fighter, but I don’t know why you don’t fight each other,” Rayo said.
