Vasyl Lomachenko’s Biggest Fights Should Be In the Ring and Not At the Negotiation Table!

By Bradley “The Bulldog” Johnson

Vasyl Lomachenko arguably the #1 pound for pound boxer in the world is expected to fight again in late April or early May. Boxing fans are anticipating a showdown between Lomachenko and #1 Lightweight in the world Jorge Linares. Linares, 44-3, 27 KO’s is the WBA lightweight champion and is riding a 13-fight win streak and hasn’t lost since 2012.

There may be a hold up with negotiations since Vasyl fights on ESPN with Bob Arum and Top Rank and Jorge fights on HBO and is signed with Golden Boy. The problem the promotion teams are running into is agreeing on a date that is friendly to each networks agenda. These problems of making big fights happen is nothing new to boxing.

The best fighting the best, not happening is the unfortunate side of these promotional issues. In this case both teams are willing and ready to make it happen, but if they can’t decide on a date soon Lomachenko and Top Rank will have to find another partner in the ring.

As of now Vasyl Lomachenko is tentatively scheduled for May 12th in Madison Square Garden. That is only about 12 weeks away, not leaving much time for training camp and fight promotion to start. WBC Super featherweight titlist Miguel Berchelt would be a possible future matchup but Berchelt, 33-1, 29 KO’s just fought on February 10th. Although it was a quick 3rd round tko for Miguel, I’m not sure that gives him enough time to make the fight happen. Mikey Garcia probably considered the biggest challenge that Lomachenko can find even close to his weight class. This will be a super fight that may still me a year or more away with Mikey fighting Sergey Lipinets for the IBF World super lightweight title on March 10th.

So, who’s left? Gervonta Davis and Floyd Mayweather, JR. made it clear that Davis was in no rush for that sauce. Orlando Salido’s actions have made it clear that he knows the first fight was a perfect storm of inexperience, low blows, and missing weight that helped him squeak out an ugly split decision. He also knows that that storm will most likely swallow him whole this time, and therefore has turned down all-time high paydays for the rematch. So, we ask the question will it be Linares, or is there someone else up to the challenge?

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