By Brian Webber: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s already spoken to Devin Haney and his father Bill Haney about fighting Vasyl Lomachenko next. The Haney’s are agreeable to taking on Lomachenko as long as they get past their next opponents.
Initially, Haney seemed cool with the idea of fighting Lomachenko. He said he would leave it up to his father Bill to make the decision if he’s ready for that fight or not. At this point, the only way we don’t see Haney fight Loma is if he fails to impress in his rematch with George Kambosos Jr.
Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) is coming back from the war zone in Ukraine to headline against Jamaine Ortiz (16-0, 8 KOs) on October 9th on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
For his part, undisputed lightweight champion Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) is defending against George Kambosos Jr. in a rematch on October 16th at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
There’s a lot of curiosity about the former three-division world champion Lomachenko because he looked impressive bouncing back from his loss to Teofimo Lopez in 2020.
That was a fight that Lomachenko fought with one arm, and yet he came close to beating Teofimo on his best night.
After that loss, Lomachenko won his next two fights, beating former Teofimo opponents Masayoshi Nakatani and Richard Commey.
“He’s fighting on October 29th against [Jamaine] Ortiz, a pretty good lightweight in the Garden, and if he’s successful there, I hope to match him against the Haney-Kambosos winner,” said Bob Arum to Secondsout when asked about his plans for Vasyl Lomachenko.
“I haven’t talked to Kambosos’ people about it, but I’ve talked to Devin and Bill Haney, and that’s the fight they want,” said Arum about the Haney’s wanting Lomachenko next if they defeat George Kambosos Jr in their rematch on October 16th in Melbourne, Australia.
If Haney chooses not to fight Lomachenko, it’ll be interesting to see who Arum can dig up for Loma to fight. It’s safe to say that Ryan Garcia and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will want no part of fighting Lomachenko.
You can probably add Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz to that list as well. More than likely, Arum would need to match Lomachenko against Shakur Stevenson at 130.
