Vasily Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr. will meet on May 12th for the vacant IBF lightweight title down under in a twelve-round showdown in Perth, Australia.
Mike Coppinger reports the Lomachenko vs. Kambosos Jr. fight is a done deal and will be shown live on ESPN in the U.S. on May 11 but will take place on May 12 in Perth, Australia, as they’re 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the U.S.
The popular former IBF, WBA, WBO & Ring lightweight champion Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KOs) last fought in July, beating Maxi Hughes by an unpopular twelve-round majority decision in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
That was Kambosos’ first win in two years since defeating Teofimo Lopez by a twelve-round majority decision in November 2021. It also marked his first fight with his new promoters at Top Rank.
Lomachenko’s Return to the Spotlight
The former three-division world champion Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) will be fighting for the first time since his narrow 12-round unanimous decision loss to Devin Haney in 2023.
That fight left a lot of bitter feelings because Lomachenko appeared to win, but the three judges who worked the contest gave it to Haney. Apart from the questionable scoring, Loma would have won that fight if he hadn’t taken his foot off the gas pedal in the 12th round when Haney was beaten.
Instead of giving Lomachenko a rematch, Haney moved up to 140 and captured the WBC title last December.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko turns 36 in February, and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s lost anything from his game in the year that he’s been out of the ring.
Kambosos’ Hometown Advantage
#2 IBF George Kambosos Jr. will have the home-country advantage for this fight against #3, but that’s no guarantee of victory because he twice lost to Haney fighting at home in Australia.
Kambosos Jr. will need to fight much better against Lomachenko than he did in his fights against Maxi Hughes and Haney if he’s to capture the vacant IBF title.
