“I’M returning August 25, who do you think I’m going to be fighting?”
I have no idea. In fact, I’m surprised that Vasyl Lomachenko is even boxing so soon. The three weight world champion put in a sensational display when he beat Jorge Linares for the WBA lightweight world title. But in the process he dislocated his shoulder and suffered a torn labrum. It seemed the earliest he would be able to recover and compete would be December, if at all this year.
But Lomachenko seems to have undergone a miraculous recovery and announced on social media that he would be able to box on August 25.
Top Rank, his promoter are staging a show on that date, in Phoenix, Arizona. They already have two other world title fights set for that show. Isaac Dogboe defends the WBO super-bantamweight title he recently won against Japan’s Hidenori Otake and Raymundo Beltran puts his WBO lightweight title on the line against unbeaten Russian Roman Andreev.
Beltran would be an appealing unification opponent for Lomachenko, but it would be a further surprise if that fight could be made before December. The Ukrainian is likely to make more of a run of the mill defence of his WBA lightweight crown.
Linares remains the number one in the WBA 135lbs rankings, Daud Cino Yordan is number two, Evens Pierre, a little known Haitian, is three and Britain’s own Anthony Crolla is number four.
Tell us who you think Vasyl Lomachenko should fight next. Comment below
