“I feel I’m the greatest, however I do know that I’ll get higher,” Haney mentioned. “I’m nonetheless studying on the job, and I perceive that.”
The Haneys attribute that willingness to be taught from nearly anybody to their begin in the sport. Bill Haney is Devin’s head coach, however he had by no means boxed or coached. He owned a hip-hop document label in Oakland, Calif., earlier than promoting it and shifting to Las Vegas. When Devin started boxing as a grade-schooler, Bill immersed himself in the sport, studying from Devin’s trainers and ultimately opening his personal health club.
Bill Haney likens their present setup to a soccer crew: He is the head coach, working with a rotating forged of high-level trainers as coordinators on a fight-by-fight foundation, every including to the Haney playbook.
“If I inform him, ‘come again with the hook,’ that’s Eddie Mustafa Muhammad,” Bill Haney mentioned, referring to the veteran coach and former gentle heavyweight champion. “If I say, ‘shut it up and stroll down,’ that’s Floyd Mayweather Sr. If I say, ‘get out of impartial,’ that’s Roy Jones Jr. Those are the performs that we realized from the greats.”
But Bill will almost certainly not work Devin’s nook towards Kambosos. As of Thursday, he was nonetheless awaiting a visa to enter Australia, the delay stemming from a drug possession conviction in the early Nineties. Likewise, the English coach Ben Davison, who was scheduled to help Haney for the Kambosos struggle, has been denied a visa. Davison is a previous affiliate of Daniel Kinahan, the boxing energy dealer accused of main an Irish organized crime group.
The last-minute teaching adjustments additional complicate a tough process. Kambosos gained titles from three sanctioning our bodies by upsetting Teófimo López final November, overwhelming Lopez with a late surge. He achieved his highest output (88 punches) and most connections (26 punches) in the remaining spherical of that title bout.
Kambosos, 28, shares Davis’s skepticism for Haney’s W.B.C. title.
“This man acts like a gangster. He ain’t a gangster,” Kambosos mentioned at a pre-fight information convention. “He’s as pretend as that belt.”