Vasiliy Lomachenko to talk with promoters about his next move

By Boxing News - 10/18/2020 - Comments

By Jim Maltzman: Vasily Lomachenko will be speaking to his manager and promoter to decide which direction he should go in for his next fight following his disappointing loss to Teofimo Lopez last Saturday.

Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) put in a valiant effort in attempting to rally late in the contest to pull out a victory over IBF lightweight champion Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs), but it wasn’t to be.

Teofimo won a 12 round unanimous decision over the former pound-for-pound king Lomachenko in ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was shown on free television on ESPN, and it likely brought in massive ratings last night.

We’ll see if Top Rank boss Bob Arum can reason with Teofimo to make him understand what he stands to gain in fighting Lomachenko a second time.

The scores for the Lomachenko-Lopez fight:

  • 116-112 – Tim Cheatham
  • 119-109 – Julie Lederman
  • 117-111 – Steve Weisfeld

Despite winning, Teofimo came across as having a chip on his shoulder at the post-fight press conference. He said that he WON’T give Lomachenko a rematch and that he’s moving on because they include a clause in the contract.

Instead of taking a logical view on what’s good for his career in giving Lomachenko a rematch, Teofimo sounded immature in saying that he won’t fight Loma again.

Lomachenko thinks he should have won

Image: Vasiliy Lomachenko to talk with promoters about his next move

“In the first half of the fight, I think he [Teofimo] got more rounds than I did,” Lomachenko said to ESPN after the match. “But in the second half of the fight, I took it over and was much better, but I want to go home and review and see.

“I can’t concentrate right now much on it, but I definitely am not agreeing with the scorecards. At the moment, I think, and I thought I was winning the fight, but the results are the results. I’m not going to argue right now. I need to see it.

“I’ll talk with my promoter and manager, and we will discuss, and we’ll make a decision,” said Lomachenko.

Many of the fight rounds were close enough to go either way, and you can easily conclude that Lomachenko deserved a draw, if not a victory. This writer scored the fight a 12 round draw.

I had Lomachenko won four out of the last six rounds, including two out of the first six. It’s hard to see Loma winning the fight, though, because he didn’t do quite enough to get the victory.

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The way that Lomachenko finished strong in the second half of the fight, it makes sense for him to feel that he should have won.

He had Teofimo looked tired and flustered from the 7th round, and he might have been able to knock him out if he let his hands go a little more.

The loss for Lomachenko saw his long 13-fight winning streak end after six years. Before last night’s defeat, Lomachenko hadn’t lost a contest since his 2014 fight against Orlando Salido. That was a close fight, just like last night’s match.

Tank Davis wants Teofimo fight

Image: Vasiliy Lomachenko to talk with promoters about his next move

“On Loma’s side, he picked it up late. Teofimo did what he had to do,” said Gervonta Davis to ESNEWS. “We could definitely get a fight with Teofimo for all the belts.

“It could be a fight on pay-per-view and have all the belts undisputed. That’s the next step. If Teofimo can make 135 again, we can definitely make it happen. That would be a great fight. He’s explosive. He hits hard. I’m explosive, and I’m fast, and I’m quick as well.

“It would be a great fight. That would be crazy,” Davis said about the pay-per-view numbers a fight between him and Lopez would bring in.

“We got to get past the people in front of us first. We’re not overlooking Leo [Santa Cruz on October 31st] or anyone after that or if it’s Ryan [Garcia].

“We’re definitely not overlooking Ryan. Just having Ryan, he can definitely be next. We can focus on that. We got to take our time and knock them down one by one.

“He must be doing some over the top training for him to think he’s going to stop me, but we’ll see come October 31st. May the best man win,” Gervonta said when told that anta Cruz is predicting a knockout against him.

WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) needs to beat Leo Santa Cruz on October 31st in their fight on Showtime pay-per-view before he can talk of facing Teofimo.

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As Davis mentioned, he’s interested in facing Ryan Garcia in 2021 if he defeats Luke Campbell in December. Davis will likely take the Ryan match before he turns his attention to facing Teofimo next year.

 

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@teofimolopez brought the fight to Loma from jump, so no way he was letting up in the 12th 😤

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