The chances of Devin Haney landing on a coveted showdown with Vasiliy Lomachenko remain as unlikely as the necessary path to such a fight being provided by Bob Arum.

A shot at the three-division and reigning unified lightweight titlist has been a goal for Haney since entering the title fray last spring. For now, the 21-year old unbeaten contender will have to wait a little longer.

“Devin Haney is wet behind his ears,” Arum insisted during a recent interview with Fight Hub TV’s Marcos Villegas. “Devin Haney has to show that he can fight at the level of a Lomachenko.

“Right now, there are 10 lightweights better than he is.”

The absurdity of such a ranking aside, it’s also worth noting that the very path Las Vegas’ Haney (24-0, 15KOs) was willing to travel has now been blocked three times in less than a year by the Hall of Fame promoter.

Haney was among the four highest rated WBC contenders invited to participate in a box-off ordered last year to fill the vacancy left behind by former four-division titlist Mikey Garcia (39-1, 30KOs). The order came about after a controversial ruling by the WBC Board of Governors to allow Ukraine’s Lomachenko (14-1, 10KOs)—a two-belt unified titlist—to compete for the vacant title versus WBC mandatory challenger Luke Campbell (20-3, 16KOs), with the Ukrainian southpaw claiming a 12-round decision.

By then, the four set quickly whittled down to a duo. Teofimo Lopez (15-0, 11KOs) never made it to negotiations with Javier Fortuna, with Arum instead steering the unbeaten Brooklyn native on a path that would lead to the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title which he now owns.

That left Haney face then-unbeaten Zaur Abdullaev in what was upgraded from semifinal to title eliminator to interim title fight by the time they entered the ring last September. Haney claimed the belt with a one-sided 4th round stoppage, two weeks after Lomachenko trumped Campbell to serve as a three-belt unified titlist.

With the sequence came the designation of Haney being next in line to receive a shot at the full title. What never came, unfortunately, was word from the WBC to order the fight.

Instead, Lomachenko was named—upon request by his team—as WBC “Franchise” champion, a distinction which allows a boxer to represent the sanctioning body without the burden of mandatory title fights standing in the way of bigger events. Haney was upgraded to “full” titlist, though now without a path to force a fight with Lomachenko—as well as a belt, as he was forced to relinquish and settle for “Champion Emeritus” status after a 12-round win over Alfredo Santiago left him with an injured shoulder, for which he has since undergone surgery and is currently on the recovery trail.

Meanwhile, Lomachenko is now looking at a springtime showdown with Lopez—who just 15 fights into his career has considerably less pro experience than “wet behind his ears” Haney. However, he has a belt which he claimed in a two-round wipeout of Richard Commey last December, which far trumps any win by Haney to date.

“I mean… because Eddie Hearn threw money at Devin Haney, what suddenly made Devin Haney a star,” questions Arum. “You know, you contrast Devin Haney and what they're doing, pushing him and all that stuff with Floyd’s kind, Tank [Gervonta Davis] who I think is more advanced than Devin Haney and probably a more exciting fighter.

“Floyd knows that anytime he's ready, we're ready to make a Tank Davis-Lomachenko fight. But Floyd is a boxing guy, unlike Eddie Hearn. Floyd doesn't want his guy, Davis, to fight against Lomachenko until he's sure he has the experience to even be competitive. Eddie Hearn, it's all about the name and bullsh-t and all that stuff… nobody judging whether Haney belongs in the same ring with a Lomachenko or 10 other lightweights that I can name.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox