Vasyl Lomachenko could take on the winner of this Sunday’s fight between lightweight champions Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jr. if there’s the possibility of him fighting for the belts, according to promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.
Arum says he’s spoken to Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas, who has told him that the former three-division world champion is ready to leave Ukraine if given the chance to fight for the undisputed championship. Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) is already training.
Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) would be the more likely of the two to be willing to take on Lomachenko, as they were planning on fighting before.
If Haney wins on Sunday, he’ll still need to give Kambosos a rematch as part of the clause they have in their contract. But if Kambosos wins, he doesn’t need to fight Haney again.
“Yeah, absolutely, it’s Lomachenko, who for me is the gold standard for lightweights,” said Bob Arum to Fight Hub TV when asked who he wants to match Devin Haney against should he beat George Kambosos in consecutive fights.
Egis Klimas believes Lomachenko is ready to come out if there’s an opportunity to fight for the lightweight title,” said Arum.
“We have only spoken to his advisor who has told us that he has been training in Ukraine quite a bit,” DuBoef told Sky Sports. “This is a real personal thing so there is nothing we can do.
“He is going to have to figure out in his own head and with his family and his country where he wants to be come Saturday night when there is a winner determined, whether he wants to be back in the sweepstakes for his profession or does he want to stay country-side,” said DuBoef about Lomachenko.
Last December, Lomachenko defeated Richard Commey by a 12-round unanimous decision to pick up his second victory since being dethroned by Teofimo Lopez in October 2020. Lomachenko tried to get a rematch with Teofimo, but was turned down.
As it turns out, Teofimo’s decision not to give Lomachenko a rematch wound up hurting him, as he took on Kambosos and lost his title in a fight that arguably paid him less than he would have made had he fought Loma again.
“Unfortunately, he’s in Ukraine fighting for his country, but we couldn’t get him out. Hopefully, we can arrange that, and I would like to have Lomachenko fight one of these guys [Haney or Kambosos] for the world title,” Arum said.
“The town he lives in is ten kilometers north of Odessa, and there hasn’t been much shelling in that far north, but again, Lomachenko is in uniform and doing his part in defending his country from Russian aggression,” said Arum.
