By Ryan Burton

Rising lightweights Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez both enjoyed breakthrough 2018 campaigns. Haney went 2-0 while Lopez went 4-0 and both are now positioned to possibly fight by world titles by the end of the year.

Last year both fighters faced hard hitting veteran slugger Mason Mendard (34-4) and both defeated him via stoppage.  Haney faced him in May and finished him in 9 rounds while Lopez scored a highlight reel first round knockout of the Louisiana native in December.

BoxingScene.com and other members of the media recently caught up with Haney (20-0) who is training for his January 11th ShoBox clash against Xolisani Ndongeni (25-0). 

One of the topics that was discussed was a comparison between Haney and Lopez's performances against their common opponent.  While Haney gave Lopez credit for the victory, he believed that Menard wasn't the same fighter that he faced.

"I think Menard is going to retire after what me and Teofimo did to him. I don't think he was the same guy when he went in there with Teofimo. I talked with his team, he was a little gun shy going into the fight but that comes with the sport of boxing. I softened him up for him. I take nothing away from Teofimo. He went in there and took care of business and put on a good performance,"  Haney told BoxingScene.com.

The 20-year-old Haney has big plans for 2019.  He looks at the fight against Ndongeni as the start off point to fighting for a world title in the loaded lightweight division.

The WBA and WBO titles are currently held by Vasiliy Lomachenko while the WBC and IBF titles are held by Mikey Garcia. Both fighters are regarded as top 5 pound-for-pound fighters by most boxing insiders.

Haney believes that he is ready for the best that the division has to offer.

"All the champions at 135 are good. They didn't get to be world champions for no reason.  When I get up there the world will see. In 2019 the world will see that I am on a whole different level," said Haney.

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