Devin Haney has said that he is “not a racist” and rejects “discrimination of any kind” after saying in an interview that he would “never lose to a white boy”.
Haney, 21, was criticised for comments he made during an interview when asked about the possibility of facing Ukrainian world champion Vasyl Lomachenko.
Speaking to 78SportsTV, Haney said: ”I’ll tell you this. I will never lose to a white boy in my life. I don’t care what nobody got to say.
“Fight a white boy 10 times, I’m going to beat him 10 times.”
Haney’s comments received a fierce backlash on social media, with 135lbs rival Ryan Garcia writing: ”We should all respect everyone from every race and see who the best man is!
“I respect Devin Haney and I believe he didn’t mean this with racist intent but let’s all respect each other for the love of the sport.”
Haney later wrote two posts on social media denying that he is a racist.
The first said: “I’m not racist and I never will be a racist. I’m chasing greatness.”
He then posted: “I just had a very positive conversation with Mauricio Sulaiman, president of the WBC, and confirmed to him directly my commitment to be a role model and my absolute rejection of discrimination of any kind.”
Haney held the WBC lightweight title last year but was declared ‘champion in recess’ because of injury. He has since been linked with fights against Lomachenko as well as Britain’s Luke Campbell
