CONFIDENT: The world awaits for Joe Laws
“THE unwritten rule of sparring – however many rounds you say you’re going to do, you do,” declares Joe Laws. Devin Haney, as far as Laws is concerned, violated that understanding. A prospect from Benwell in Laws sharing a ring with Devin Haney, a budding star in America who already has been awarded and stripped of a WBC world title, might seem an unlikely proposition. But Laws, on a holiday in Las Vegas, crossed paths with Haney and the two still exchange bad tempered tweets on the subject.
Joe takes up the story. “I was hungover in Las Vegas, I was on holiday. Me and Jordan Reynolds went out,” he says. “I woke up, I said to Jordan there’s no way I’m sparring today. Jordan gave us a good pep talk, he said, ‘Listen bruv, we’re in Vegas man.’ I go aye, had a black coffee and went in the gym. And I was sparring Devin Haney, we were doing six rounds. I turned up to do six, the first two rounds I couldn’t hit him. The third round I come with a big left hook and the whole gym went, ‘Ooh.’ In the fourth round I absolutely tanned him, I punched his head in. After the fourth round they started pulling him out.”