By Jeff Aronow: Former three-division world champion Vasily Lomachenko will be re-entering the Matrix soon to face former IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey in twelve days from now on December 11th LIVE on ESPN,
Lomachenko, 33, is ranked #1 WBC at lightweight, but he’s not the mandatory for WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz Jr. fills that position and will be challenging him this Saturday night in Las Vegas.
In the chief support bout heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs) will put his perfect record at risk against the talented Oleksandr Teslenko (17-1, 8 KOs) in an eight round scheduled fight.
This fight against Commey (30-3, 27 KOs) made sense when it was initially put together for the two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs), as it gave the boxing public a chance to compare his performance to that of Teofimo Lopez.
With Teofimo losing to the unheralded George Kambosos Jr. last Saturday night, it makes it pointless for Lomachenko to fight Teo’s former opponent Commey. The fight that Lomachenko needs isn’t against Commey. It’s against George Kambosos Jr.
Cyber Monday reminder 🤖
Not much longer until @VasylLomachenko re-enters the Matrix ⏱#LomaCommey | DEC. 11 | ESPN pic.twitter.com/9SX9GCgDwh
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) November 29, 2021
What Loma needs is to get a title shot against undisputed lightweight champion Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs), but that’s going to be impossible. Kambosos obviously doesn’t want to lose his “beautiful belts” right away, and he surely would if he fought Lomachenko in his first defense.
Not surprisingly, Lomachenko’s name WASN’T mentioned by Kambosos or his promoter Lou DiBella last Saturday night after his upset 12 round split decision win over Teofimo.
Kambosos, 28, is now planning to try and fight the winner of this Saturday’s fight between WBC lightweight champion Devon Haney and Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz Jr.
Picking the winner of that fight will give Kambosos the opportunity to try and become the undisputed 135-lb champion.
For Lomachenko to get a title shot, he’s going to need to fight in a title eliminator with the World Boxing Councill and then hope the fight is ordered by next year.
If not, it doesn’t make sense for Lomachenko to stay at 135 because he likely wouldn’t get a shot at the WBC title until 2023.
Lomachenko will be turning 34 next February, and he’s clearly running out of time waiting for a title shot.
In hindsight, it was a mistake on Loma’s part not to include a rematch clause in his contract with Teofimo Lopez in their fight in October 2020.
Perhaps Lomachenko assumed he would win or if he might have thought that he would be given a voluntary rematch by Teofimo.
Obviously, it was surprising that Teofimo chose NOT to give Lomachenko a rematch because it made him look weak, and also move backfired.
Teofimo would have made more money fighting Lomachenko in a rematch than he did last weekend in defending his four lightweight titles against little-known George Kambosos Jr. and losing to him.
Teo argued that he had to take the fight with Kambosos because he was his IBF mandatory, but he could have asked the IBF for an exception or given him a step aside so that he could fight Lomachenko in a rematch.
At the very worst, Teofimo could have vacated his IBF title and faced Lomachenko if he wasn’t successful in moving him out of the way.
It would have made sense because the money would have been better, and losing to Loma wouldn’t have hurt Teofimo nearly as bad as getting beaten by Kambosos, who isn’t all that special. He looks like he would be vulnerable against Lomachenko and the other top lightweights.
“It is always special when I fight at Madison Square Garden, where so many great moments in my career have taken place. Richard Commey is a former world champion, an opponent I will not underestimate. I expect the best version of Commey,” said Lomachenko.
It’ll be interesting to see who Top Rank gets for Lomachenko to fight next if he successfully beats Commey on December 11th. With Teofimo moving up to 140, there’s no chance of Top Rank matching him against Lomachenko. But even if Teofimo stayed at 135, he still likely wouldn’t face Loma again.