By Jim Dower: Promoter Bob Arum is planning on working a deal to have Top Rank fighter Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) move up in weight to challenge WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares (44-3, 27 KOs) for his titles on May 12th, according to RingTV.com.
The Linares vs. Lomachenko fight would take place at Madison Square Garden in New York. However, it remains to be seen whether the fight will get made. Linares is co-promoted by Teiken in Japan and Golden Boy Promotions in the U.S. Arum has chosen to arrange the deal with Linares though Teiken rather than Golden Boy.
If Arum only negotiates with Teiken, then the fight might not go through unless Golden Boy is on board with it. Golden Boy Promotions has a lot for Linares’ career in turning things around for him in matching him against Anthony Crolla and Luke Campbell. Linares has become a big name with the help of Golden Boy.
Arum’s backup plan for Lomachenko is to match him against one of his own Top Rank stable fighters 36-year-old Ray Beltran (34-7-1, 21 KOs) if he defeats Paulus Moses on February 17th in their fight for the vacant WBO lightweight title. Lomachenko would be taking a lesser fight if he ends up facing Beltran, who has beaten by a lot of different guys during his career. That would be a step down for Lomachenko from his last fight against Guillermo Rigondeaux and a big step down from a match against Linares.
The only thing Lomachenko could get out of a fight with Beltran is the WBO lightweight title, and the casual boxing fans won’t care too much about the 2-time Olympic gold medalist winning a paper title. Titles have pretty much lost their meaning in this era of boxing. The only thing that matters is great match-ups the boxing fans want to see. The only time titles matter now is when it’s a situation where a fighter is winning all 4 titles.
Linares is seen as one of the best fighters at 135, which is why Arum wants to match the 29-year-old Lomachenko against him. Linares might not be the best fighter in the lightweight division. WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia is viewed as the best fighter in the division by a lot of the boxing public, but Arum hasn’t been talking much about wanting to match Lomachenko against him. Arum seems to be only excited about putting Lomachenko against Linares. It could be that Arum is worried whether Lomachenko can handle the speed, power and counter punching ability of Garcia. It only takes one big punch from Garcia to end a fight. Lomachenko has good defensive skills, but he’s not entirely unhittable. Lomachenko does get hit in his fights. If Lomachenko gets hit by Garcia, he might be counted out. Hence, Arum is interested in matching Lomachenko against Linares, and he’s not talking about wanting to put him in with Garcia.
If Lomachenko defeats Linares to win the WBA lightweight strap, he could then be moving up to 140 to face former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao in November. Trainer Freddie Roach said that Pacquiao and Lomachenko will be fighting in November at light welterweight. That would be a pay-per-view fight obviously. If Lomachenko were to stay at 140 after that, he could face the likes of Jose Carlos Ramirez, who may be the next star for the light welterweight division. There’s also Mikey Garcia, who is going to be campaigning in that weight class from now on after perhaps 1 more fight at 135.