By Chris Williams: Top Rank boss man Bob Arum says super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) will be moving up to the lightweight division (135) for his next fight in April, and he’ll be targeting Ray Beltran and Jorge Linares, according to Lance Pugmire of the La Times.
The boxing public won’t be excited at all about a fight between Lomachenko and the 36-year-old Beltran. That’s a snoozer. Hopefully, Arum recognizes that. If he thinks that the casual boxing fans will get excited about Lomachenko fighting an obscure fighter like Beltran, he’s going to be in for a rude awakening. Beltran isn’t even popular with the hardcore fans. He’s a guy that has been toiling away at lightweight in obscurity the last 10 years, losing to guys like Sharif Bogere, Ammeth Diaz, Luis Ramos Jr. and Terence Crawford.
It’s good that the 29-year-old Lomachenko is finally moving up to 135, considering there are no big money fights for him in his current weight class at 130. In moving up to lightweight, Lomachenko will at least be in the vicinity of some higher paying fights against Manny Pacquiao, Jorge Linares and Mikey Garcia.
It’s not all that surprising that Lomachenko will be possibly going after a fight against Beltran, because he’s one of Arum’s fighters in his Top Rank stable, and he had a habit of matching his guys against each other raher than putting them in with fighters outside of his stable. Beltran will be fighting Paulus Moses on February 16 for the vacant WBO World lightweight title in Reno, Nevada.
“Bob Arum says Vasyl Lomachenko will definitely move to lightweight in his next fight in late April with Ray Beltran and Jorge Linares targeted,” Pugmire said on his social media site.
It’s very likely that the fight Lomachenko will ultimately be taking is against the Top Rank promoted Beltran for the WBO lightweight title. It’s a very predictable move. It’s an in house fight for Arum to match Lomachenko against Beltran rather than the Golden Boy promoted Jorge Linares. Moreover, Linares will likely be fighting Mikey Garcia in his second fight in 2018 after his mismatch this Saturday night against bottom fringe contender Mercito Gesta. Mikey Garcia will almost beat Linares.
It’s extremely unlikely that Arum will match Lomachenko against former Top Rank fighter Mikey. I can’t see that happening in a million years. It’ll be Lomachenko vs. Beltran in my view. After Lomachenko beats Beltran, Arum will probably try and coax the 2-time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist to take on Manny Pacquiao a 140 or a catch-weight of 138. Moving up to lightweight is Lomachenko getting ready for the Pacquiao fight.