Devin Haney does not like Vasiliy Lomachenko — plain and simple.

On May 20 in Las Vegas, Haney defends his lightweight titles against the former champion and pound-for-pound great in a fight that was four years in the making.

Back in August 2019, Lomachenko claimed the WBC title while retaining his WBA and WBO titles after outpointing Luke Campbell.

Haney became the interim WBC lightweight champion two weeks later and seemed destined to fight the Ukrainian. However, he never got to face Lomachenko who was later named WBC franchise champion at the request of Top Rank.

Haney was subsequently promoted to WBC champion without notably defeating the champion. Of course, the American would go on to defend his new WBC crown four times before unifying the belts with a unanimous decision win over George Kambosos Jr. in June last year and later defeating him in a rematch.

Coincidentally enough, Kambosos was due to face Lomachenko in June only for the latter to be unavailable as he was serving in the Ukrainian military at the time due to the ongoing Russia invasion.

However, Lomachenko is back and the stars have finally aligned for him to face Haney, who wants nothing more than to beat him bad and send him to retirement.

“He made me wait four years to fight him, since I was 20 years old,” Haney said during the first part of ESPN’s Blood, Sweat & Tears: Haney vs. Lomachenko series (via Boxing Scene). “I don’t like Loma. I want to beat him bad. I want to send him into retirement.”

Lomachenko is entering unfamiliar territory for this matchup. For once, he is a considerable betting underdog in addition to being the older and smaller fighter.

And for the undefeated Haney — 11 years the junior of Lomachenko — he believes the odds are stacked against his opponent.

“Loma has never been the underdog,” Haney added. “This time, he fighting the champion. The bigger guy, the stronger guy, faster guy, younger guy. All odds are stacked against him.”