Firstly, Devin Haney vs Vasiliy Lomachenko is a spectacular match-up, and represents what should be a core component of the sport: the best fighting the best.
Secondly, both boxers are known for their prowess in the ring; namely, their ring-IQ, both fighters are highly-skilled and understand the sweet science, especially Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Lomachenko, had an illustrious and perhaps, an inimitable amateur career (winning just under 400 fights with only 1 loss), he had also became champion at featherweight in just 3 fight; being a gold medallist in the 2012 Olympics, he was fast-tracked into the professional ranks due to his absolutely dazzling talent.
Lomachenko has shown decline in the last couple of years; his loss to Teofimo Lopez appeared to have had connection to inactivity over the period of the lockdowns. Lomachenko had arguably gave away the rounds in the first-half of the match-up, but began an onslaught from rounds 7-11 against Lopez, clearly winning those rounds.
His victories against Nakatani and Ortiz had demonstrated that he is still able to compete at world level and win stunning victories; for instance, his match-up against Nakatani was arguably a return to form, but Ortiz had proven to be a worthy opponent for the Ukrainian, and gave him a competitive match for the whole of the 12 rounds.
Devin Haney is coming into his prime and doesn’t yet know defeat, he has had earned wins against Jorge Linares (also one of Lomachenko’s opponents, Lomachenko had achieved a TKO win against Linares), Kambosos Jr. (Kamboses Jr had defeated Teofimo Lopez, who had taken the title from Lomachenko earlier).
Haney is an excellent fighter on the back-foot, and also comfortably boxes when moving forward and holding the centre of the ring. Haney’s primary advantages are: youth, size, reach, power etc. Haney excels at performing pull-counters, throwing the back-hand with power to hurt his opponents, this will assist greatly against the southpaw, especially when left-hooks are thrown; a well-timed right-cross when stepping back to evade a punch and then stepping forward to come back into range, will deliver a strike with considerable momentum behind it, especially if the opponent is coming forward.
Lomachenko will try to move to his right to negate Haney’s back-hand, maneuvering around Haney’s lead-foot to setup his left-hand counters and right-hand leads (hooks or jabs), Haney’s response to this I think, will be to step around Lomachenko and force a reset and then continue to box from the outside.
Finally, as Lomachenko is past his physical-prime, it will be interesting to see how his reflexes and speed are; I suspect that Haney will have an advantage in these departments, I don’t think Haney has Lomachenko’s raw talent, but he has numerous advantages in which I’ve listed above, I don’t think either boxer will get badly hurt in this match-up, but I think Haney will win by decision after a competitive match-up, I expect that Haney will fade somewhat in the later rounds, and this is where Lomachenko will have most of his success.