By Jim Dower: Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez says the fight between WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares (44-3, 27 KOs) and Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) is still not done for May 12th.
While Gomez acknowledges that ESPN will fit the fight in the time slot they need for it to take place early in the evening on the 12th of May, the fight won’t be done until Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum contacts Golden Boy. It appears that Arum still hasn’t done that. It appears that Arum has been working exclusively with Linares’ co-promoters at Teiken Promotions and not in contact with Golden Boy, who also co-promotes the 32-year-old Linares.
”Not true,” Eric Gomez said on his Twitter about whether the Lomachenko vs. Linares fight is done for May 12. ”Yes, ESPN will accommodate the time, but ultimately not until #BobcallEric Twitter.com.”
Hopefully the Lomachenko-Linares fight doesn’t get made because one of the promoters isn’t willing to call the other promoters. That would be wacky crazy. Lomachenko might need to lean on his own promoter to make the call to Golden Boy to get the fight done, because it doesn’t look like Top Rank only going through Linares’ co-promoters at Teiken will be enough for the fight to get made.
Lomachenko and Linares are willing to face each other, and they eager to get the fight done. There’s only 2 months to go before the May 12th fight, so the contract needs to be competed for the fight to get done on this date. It appears that ESPN is willing to move the SEC Women’s softball game so that the Lomachenko vs. Linares fight can be scheduled earlier in the evening on May 12th. The fight needs to be scheduled earlier on that date on ESPN so that it doesn’t interfere with the Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez rerun on HBO. Golden Boy aren’t going to give permission for Linares to fight on May 12 if his fight with Lomachenko interferes with the Golovkin-Canelo 2 rerun on HBO.
The Linares-Lomachenko fight event must be completed before the start time of the Golovkin vs. Canelo 2 rerun on May 12. With all that said, it would be a pity if the Linares vs. Lomachenko fight doesn’t get made due to the promoters not making the phone call to get the fight done. It doesn’t make sense.
If the fight does get made, Lomachenko will be facing Linares on May 12 on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York. Linares lives in Tokyo, Japan, and was born in Venezuela. In the last three years, Linares has fought three times in the UK in beating Anthony Crolla twice and Kevin Mitchell. In Linares’ last two fights, he’s attracted big crowds in fighting in the U.S against Luke Campbell and Mercito Gesta at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Linares fighting in New York would clearly favor Lomachenko, as there’s a large Eastern European fan base in that part of the country. Linares has done an excellent job of ignoring the cheering of his opponent’s boxing fans when he fought in the UK in front of loud groups of fans. Linares might be able to Lomachenko’s fans in New York and fight effectively. Lomachenko will likely be the favorite to win this fight.