By Dan Ambrose: Four-belt undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney could be defending against Vasyl Lomachenko on May 20th on ESPN.
Dan Canobbio of Inside Boxing is reporting the news of the May 20th date. It’s still not official, and it’s unclear whether the fight will be on ESPN pay-per-view, despite Haney (29-0, 15 KOs) posting on Twitter that it will be.
According to reporter Salvador Rodriguez, the Haney-Lomachenko fight will be staged at Madison Square Garden in New York.
That’s a good location for Loma, as he’s fought at MSG six times in his ten-year professional career, including in his last two fights against Jamaine Ortiz and Richard Commey.
For Top Rank choosing to place the Haney vs. Loomachenko fight in New York, it suggests that it might not sell if it were staged in Las Vegas. Some boxing fans believe Haney can’t sell tickets due to his lack of popularity and that they’re given away free to fill the empty venues when he fights.
With the big purses that Haney and the former three-division world champion Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs) will be getting for the fight, it makes sense for Top Rank to put the fight on ESPN PPV. It’s questionable whether there will be enough interest from boxing fans in purchasing the event for it to cover the purses.
It's looking like Devin Haney vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko will be May 20th. No word on whether it will be on regular ESPN or PPV
— Dan Canobbio (@DanCanobbio) January 13, 2023
“Against Lomachenko on May 20 at MSG… it doesn’t sound bad, but PPV?” said Salvador Rodriguez on Twitter.
Lomachenko is coming off a 12 round unanimous decision win over Jamaine Ortiz on October 29th. He won by the scores 115–113, 116–112, and 117–111.
The 26-year-old Jamaine (16-1-1, 8 KOs), who had helped Lomachenko with sparring in the past, gave him fits with his size, hand speed, and technical skills during the fight.
Going into the championship rounds, it appeared that Ortiz was on his way to an upset victory. However, he gassed out in the last four rounds, allowing Lomachenko to rally to pull out the victory.
Still, it was a fight that appeared dead even at the end, but the judges chose to give Lomachenko the victory.
Going into the potential May 20th fight, Lomachenko will need to find a way to deal with Haney’s huge size advantage because he’s as big, if not bigger than Jamaine, but he’s probably not going to fade in the later rounds like he did.