Vasiliy Lomachenko v George Kambosos Jnr

[Master]

Vasyl Lomachenko turns down massive fight to stay in Ukraine and defend country, opening door for Devin Haney to face George Kambosos Jr instead

Vasall Lomachenko has turned down the opportunity to leave Ukraine and train for a fresh world title fight with George Kambosos Jr.

Loma lost his belts to Teofimo Lopez in a big upset at the end of 2020, but bounced back last year with two good wins which put him in position to fight for the titles again.

In another big upset, Australia’s Kambosos Jr dethroned Lopez back in November and is now looking for his first defence.

The two top contenders to get this fight have always been Lomachenko and America’s Devin Haney.

Loma surged into pole position as he agreed to travel face the champion in his own country on June 5. It’s understood that the deal for the fight was all-but done.

However, when Russia invaded Ukraine he went straight home to be with his family.

Lomachenko also signed up for his local territorial defence force.

Over the weekend, promoter Bob Arum revealed that his fighter had been offered the chance by government officials to leave the country to train for the fight.

On Monday night though, it emerged that Lomachenko has turned down this opportunity and, with it, the opportunity to win back the belts against Kambosos Jr.

As a result, the Australian confirmed that his team have now offered the fight to Haney on June 5 instead.

Kambosos Jr holds the WBA, WBC ‘franchise’, IBF and WBO lightweight world titles following his win over Lopez, while Haney holds the standard WBC title.

There is a dispute in the boxing world as to whether the WBC’s ‘franchise’ belt should count as a genuine world title and so whether Kambosos Jr has the right to call himself undisputed champion.

The fight with standard WBC champion Haney will settle this argument.

https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/1...e-kambosos-jr/

[Master]

Ryan Garcia has insisted George Kambosos Jr is NOT the best lightweight in the world after recently bestowing that honour on Vasyl Lomachenko.

That’s despite the Australian boxing star pulling off the upset of the year by becoming the unified lightweight champion following his win over Teofimo Lopez.

Kambosos Jr has won every single one of his 20 fights since turning professional in May 2013, an impressive feat for the 28-year-old New South Wales native.

But 21-0 American star Garcia, who previously held the interim WBC lightweight title, wasn’t impressed with Kambosos’ performance against Lopez.

Garcia told Chris Mannix: “That was a very weird fight. Don’t get me wrong. Kudos for him for winning.

“I don’t think he’s as skilful as Teofimo Lopez. I still don’t think he’s as skilful. I think he caught Teofimo at the right time, that’s all.

“I really do believe that. It’s just my opinion. I know boxing, and I could see it, do you know what I mean?

“The thing that I do like about Kambosos is that he might not be the best talent, but he probably works super hard. So he beat talent when talent didn’t work hard, and you can never knock a guy on that.

“I wish that he makes a lot of money in the sport and he could take care of his family forever, but I will show him that he doesn’t belong in the ring with me.

“I’ll get him out of there for sure, and I’m not just talking like Teofimo. I’m actually going to do it.”

The 23-year-old Garcia instead wants to face Lomachenko for all the belts in an intriguing clash of styles.

He continued: “I do, and if it doesn’t great, I don’t care. I’m so tired. I mean my goals are obviously to win titles but I’m above titles and I’m above b*******.

“I don’t care if I could win a stupid title that doesn’t mean anything – I care about beating some good fighters.

“So if it so happens that Lomachenko gets the belts from Kambosos, I will be the first one to fight Lomachenko because Lomachenko knows I can fight.

“I think that will be a great fight because he’s shorter than me but he’s going to be trying to apply that pressure. It’s just going to be a fun fight. He’s going to be very wary of my s***.

“He knows. And I have to watch out for his pressure and his technical abilities. So I will be looking forward to that.

“If not, I want to fight Teofimo at 140, knock him out, and then hopefully get Tank Davis.

“And when I say knockout guys, I say I will knock out every single person because I don’t see anybody surviving.

“But if they do, great, I will make it into a dog fight because I love it. Boxing is fun to me. You won’t ever have an easy fight with me for sure but I will always go for the knockout.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...cid=entnewsntp