Promoter Eddie Hearn is confidently backing undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney to defeat Vasiliy Lomachenko in a likely showdown being targeted for 2023.

Hearn promoted Haney for several years, before the unbeaten boxer signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank earlier this year.

Haney would decision George Kambosos in back-to-back fights to unify the IBF, WBC, WBA, WBO world titles at 135-pounds.

Lomachenko snapped his long layoff last weekend at the Hulu Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden. The former three division champion had a much tougher time than expected in winning a twelve round unanimous decision over unbeaten contender Jamaine Ortiz.

Haney, who was watching from ringside, is now being tabbed as a tremendous favorite to beat Lomachenko, who at one time was regarded as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. Some observers believe the two-time Olympic gold medal winner is starting to show his age.

Hearn was always under the belief that Haney was capable of beating Lomachenko. And while he expects Haney to win, he also expects a better version of Lomachenko in that fight.

“I know it was a particularly close fight [between Lomachenko and Ortiz], I just think it could be a mixture of a lot of things. I could be a little bit of ring rust, a little bit of a lack of motivation in a fight like that. It could be that he’s had 400 amateur fights, surgery, getting a little bit older. It could be great timing for Devin. I make Devin a massive favorite in that fight right now. I always believed Devin could beat him but back then, Devin was a little bit unproven, Loma was flying," Hearn told the DAZN Boxing Show.

“I just think with Devin’s momentum, his size at that weight, that performance, I just make him the favorite. But great fighters turn it on. I expect a much better Lomachenko in an undisputed fight.”