By Jeff Aronow: Vasily Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas would like to have a rematch set up with Teofimo Lopez, if possible, once ‘Hi-Tech’ Lomachenko’s surgically repaired right shoulder has healed.
Former WB/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Lomachenko had surgery last Monday by well-known surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache to repair an injury during training camp for the fight last Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Lomachenko lost training time because of the injury, according to Klimas. He couldn’t spar being given an injection by the doctor.
This the same shoulder that Dr. ElAttrache in 2018, and it’s a new injury. Lomachenko’s dad, Anatoliy, wanted him to pull out of the fight with Lopez, according to ESPN. He wouldn’t do it. Lomachenko is said to have threatened retirement.
His desire to stick it out for the fight with that strong that he was willing to compete with the younger, bigger, and stronger Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) with an injury.
“If it’s possible, we would like to have the rematch,” Klimas said to ESPN. “If they are so tough … are they willing to come back and do that?”
The answer to that question from Klimas on the subject of a rematch with Teofimo Lopez is ‘no,’ as he’s already said repeatedly that he WON’T be giving Loma a second fight.
Sadly, Teofimo appears to have dug in his heels on the subject of a rematch, and he’s not going to give Lomachenko another fight no matter what. In Teofimo’s mind, he won the fight in a one-sided manner, and it doesn’t matter what anyone tells him. He’s going to continue believing that it was an easy win.
Teofimo’s rationale for not wanting to give Lomachenko a rematch is as follows:
- The rematch clause wasn’t included in the contract
- Teofimo believes he won in a convincing manner
Teofimo disagrees entirely with the boxing fans and former fighters that saw the contest as a 12 round draw. As far as the 23-year-old Lopez is concerned, he dominantly won the fight over Lomachenko. So he’s not going to give him a rematch.
“We lost one week of training. We lost one week of sparring because the doctor forbid him to do much for a week after the injection,” Klimas said.
Anatoly, “Wanted out of the fight,” Klimas said. “We didn’t want to look like we were looking for excuses or something.”
It’ll be up to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum if he can talk Teofimo into giving Lomachenko a rematch. From the way Arum was speaking, he’s going to leave it up to Teofimo if he wants to fight Loma again. In other words, Arum isn’t going to press Lopez to fight Lomachenko again.
Obviously, that’s something that would likely bring about an opposite result with Lopez stubbornly digging in his heels even more in resisting giving Loma a second fight.