By Sam Volz: Vasyl Lomachenko predicts that he’s going to perform against Jamaine Ortiz on Saturday in the same way he always does.
That is to say, Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) will take his former sparring partner Ortiz (16-0-1, 8 KOs) to school when the two meet in the headliner on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lomachenko, 34, is very interested in using a victory over Ortiz to face undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney next if his promoter Bob Arum can set that fight up.
Loma wants the four belts that Haney conveniently collected while he was busy in his home country defending against the invasion.
If not for Lomachenko going to war, Haney would have never gotten the chance to fight former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr for his three belts.
It was Lomachenko that Kambosos Jr wanted to fight, not Haney. The only reason Kambosos chose Haney is that Lomachenko chose to join the territorial defense battalion in Ukraine when the war started eight months ago.
So in a big way, Haney owes Lomachenko for him clearing the path to fighting one of the weakest champions in memory at 135.
“I’m not focused on my fight on October 29th. What’s going to happen afterwards. We’ll wait and see,” said Vasyl Lomachenko to Fight Hub TV when asked about whether he’ll be fighting Devin Haney next.
“There are talks that I’m going to be a contender, and I’m going to look for an opportunity to have a fight with Haney. I’ve had various discussions about that, but it depends on new things.
“He is in our weight class now, and what I can say is with him and some others, our weight class, is becoming that much more interesting. There are quite a few people who know what they’re doing and know what to do.
“Now the question is for our promoters to organize those fights and follow up to keep it interesting.
“I don’t know what form they’re in right now, but I would venture to say this fight won’t happen in the near future,” said Lomachenko when asked about his opinion on the Ryan Garcia vs. Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis fight.
“Yes, of course,” said Lomachenko on whether he’d like to fight Devin Haney if he’s successful against Jamaine Ortiz on Saturday night.
“I’m going to do what I usually do,” said Lomachenko about his prediction for the Ortiz fight. “I’m going to do the best that I can do and show my kind of boxing.”
