By Robert Segal: Vasyl Lomachenko is back in training and will be offered the winner of this Sunday’s undisputed lightweight championship fight between George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney.
Top Rank promoter Todd Duboef will have a conversation with the two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko this Sunday after the Kambosos-Haney to gauge his interest in taking on the winner.
#1 WBC, #1 WBO, #3 IBF, and #4 WBA Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) must decide whether he wants to return to the ring to take the Kambosos vs. Haney winner.
Earlier this year, the former three-division world champion Lomachenko was offered the fight against unified lightweight champion Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) and declined, choosing to stay in his country and defend it from the recent invasion last February.
Haney ended up being the plan B option for Kambosos, which is why that fight is happening on Sunday. Kambosos personally wanted to fight Lomachenko over Haney, as he tried to face the best, but unfortunately, the contest couldn’t happen at that time.
Lomachenko last fought in December, beating Richard Commey by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision. Before that, Lomachenko stopped the always formidable contender Masayoshi Nakatani in the ninth round in June of last year.
Lomachenko has won his last two fights since losing his three 135-lb titles to Teofimo Lopez in October 2020. That was a contest in which Lomachenko fought with an injured right shoulder and waited until the seventh round to start throwing shots finally.
From the seventh round on, Lomachenko dominated Teofimo and was the better fighter at the end. However, given all the rounds that Lomachenko had given away earlier, he lost a 12-round unanimous decision.
The fight was much closer than the scores turned in by the three judges. They had the fight scored wide for Teofimo by 116-112, 119-109, and 117-111. This writer had Teofimo edging it by a 115-113 score.
“We have only spoken to his advisor, who has told us that he has been training in Ukraine quite a bit,” said Todd DuBoef to Sky Sports about Lomachenko. “This is a real personal thing, so there is nothing we can do.
“He is going to have to figure out in his own head and with his family and his country where he wants to come Saturday night when there is a winner determined, whether he wants to be back in the sweepstakes for his profession or does he want to stay country-side with all the civilians there, protecting them and being as helpful as possible. It is about what Vasiliy believes in,” said Duboef about Lomachenko.
It’s arguably better for the winner of the Kambosos-Haney fight that Lomachenko does not fight them because neither guy matched up well with him unless it’s the injured version that we saw against Teofimo in 2020.
Lomachenko can’t afford to stay out of the ring for too long of a period if he wants to come back and perform the way he’d been accustomed to during his career.
