Teofimo Lopez likes Devin Haney’s jab and believes his rival’s conditioning has served Haney well.

Lopez just doesn’t think the undefeated, fully unified lightweight champion has enough “dog” in him to beat Vasiliy Lomachenko. Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) is slightly favored to beat Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) on May 20 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but Lopez expects Lomachenko to emerge victorious from their ESPN Pay-Per-View main event.

Lopez, who upset Lomachenko by unanimous decision in their 12-round lightweight title fight 2½ years ago, explained his rationale during a recent appearance on “The DAZN Boxing Show.”

“I think I got Lomachenko winning this fight,” Lopez told co-hosts Barak Bess and Akin Reyes. “The only reason why I say it is just the punch IQ that this man throws and what he does. He’ll get you tired. Even though Devin has the conditioning for it, you gotta commit. You can’t just, you can’t play defense with Loma. You can’t play defense with Loma. You can’t. You gotta attack [by] all means necessary, and I don’t think Devin got that dog in him to do it.”

The 24-year-old Haney has beaten George Kambosos Jr. decisively on points in back-to-back 12-round bouts. Australia’s Kambosos upset Lopez, who was a 10-1 favorite, by split decision to win the IBF, WBA and WBO 135-pound championships from him in November 2021 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.

The 25-year-old Lopez still thinks Ukraine’s Lomachenko will end Haney’s reign as lightweight champion. Haney owns even more of a height advantage over Lomachenko than Lopez possessed, but Lopez doesn’t expect size to play much of a difference in their fight.

“The size difference is not gonna matter,” Lopez said. “Loma’s fought bigger guys than that. I mean, think about it – the Olympics, two-time Olympic gold medalist. He’s had 400-plus amateur fights. He’s been in the pro game, I mean, three-divisional champion, all those things. I mean, he’s fought tall, small, all the guys that you could think of. I just don’t think – even though Devin has a good jab, he’s too scared to commit all the way with it.”

As interested as he is in watching Haney-Lomachenko, Brooklyn’s Lopez (18-1, 13 KOs) has his own big fight on which to focus.

He’ll challenge Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) for the Scottish southpaw’s WBO junior welterweight title June 10. ESPN will televise their 12-round, 140-pound title fight from The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.