George Kambosos will not be preventing Vasiliy Lomachenko in any case.
Lomachenko had agreed to a deal final month for a struggle with Kambosos on June 5 in Melbourne, Australia, however the two-time Olympic gold medalist has elected to stay in Ukraine together with his household moderately than depart the nation for coaching camp, Kambosos’ promoter Lou DiBella informed ESPN on Monday.
Lomachenko, 34, is a member of a territorial protection battalion in Ukraine working a safety element on the border in the course of the conflict, which started final month when Russia invaded. Beneath martial regulation in Ukraine, males aged 18 to 60 and deemed match to serve are barred from leaving the nation, however efforts had been being made to permit elite athletes to depart.
“How can anyone question, the fight he’s going through right now is much bigger than any boxing match,” DiBella stated. “We made a deal with him, the deal was literally done before the invasion, we wanted to give him any chance within reason with our allowable timetable.
“We’ve nothing however the utmost respect for his resolution. Kambosos wished to verify as soon as we made that deal that Lomachenko had ample time to determine. … We stated all alongside we might attempt to make the most important fights and we did that right now.”
Devin Haney, meanwhile, on Monday was again offered the undisputed lightweight title fight with Kambosos on June 5 at Marvel Stadium, sources told ESPN. Haney, 23, has pushed for the bout but waited in the wings as Plan B after Lomachenko agreed to a deal. The deal Haney was offered is similar to the one Lomachenko accepted, sources said.
“You had been supplied [the fight] months in the past & you performed round,” Kambosos tweeted at Haney. “Within the meantime the good man Vasiliy Lomachenko made it quite simple to do something to make it occur & it was a completed deal. However Loma now has a much bigger struggle [at the moment] which I completely respect so let’s have a look at how a lot of your phrase is true.”
Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) owns the WBC lightweight title while Kambosos is the WBC’s franchise champion. The Australian also owns the other three major 135-pound titles and is recognized by many as the undisputed lightweight champion. If Kambosos and Haney fight each other, there can be no debate any longer.
“The WBO had made it very clear that it might strip George Kambosos Jr. if he had been to struggle anyone aside from the necessary, Vasiliy Lomacheko,” Kambosos’ manager, Peter Kahn, told ESPN. “George didn’t wish to relinquish any of the belts and subsequently was going to … struggle the necessary. In his thoughts he was all the time going to win after which would transfer on to struggle Devin Haney.
“Yes, there were other factors at play regarding the deals that were presented but it also served another purpose, which is to keep the belts intact.”
Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) gained the titles with a split-decision victory over Teofimo Lopez in November in ESPN’s Upset of the 12 months. Kambosos, 28, was dropped within the opening spherical of the slugfest however rebounded to ground Lopez in Spherical 10. He was subsequently rated No. 1 at 135 kilos by ESPN.
Lomachenko, a former three-division champion, misplaced his unified championship to Lopez in October 2020. He fought with a torn rotator cuff and underwent surgical procedure to restore the shoulder following the bout. Since then, he has gained two consecutive bouts: a ninth-round TKO of Masayoshki Nakatani in June adopted by a unanimous-decision victory over Richard Commey in December.
Haney, who fights out of Las Vegas, broke out in 2021 with resolution wins over former champions Jorge Linares and Joseph Diaz Jr.
