by David P. Greisman
Vasyl Lomachenko’s move up to junior lightweight this year came as he sought bigger opportunities than were available at featherweight, particularly as so many of the other top 126-pounders weren’t fighting on HBO, like he was, and were with Al Haymon, who for some time had been the target of a lawsuit by Lomachenko’s promoter, Top Rank.
Haymon and Top Rank settled in May. But after Lomachenko knocked out Roman Martinez in June to win a world title in his second weight class, he opted to stay there.
“Better opportunities in 130lb,” wrote Lomachenko on his Twitter account at the time.
Yet he’s able to move down again or up further, depending on what’s being offered, according to his manager, Egis Klimas.
“I think he ran out of opponents to fight at 126. That’s why he moved to a different weight class, as well as he wants to move to different weight classes,” Klimas told BoxingScene.com. “But there is a possibility, if any opportunities come at 126, it’s easy to move back to 126. Any possibility of big fights, it really doesn’t matter what weight class. He might even go to 135. It depends on the fight we can get.”
Lomachenko’s next fight will be before the year is out.
“I’ve been told by Top Rank it’s a couple dates, talking about in November, so most likely next week we’re going to have a confirmed date for Lomachenko,” Klimas said. “I believe Top Rank has a couple different opponents to work with. As far as right now it’s not confirmed. First of all we need to confirm the date, and then they will work on an opponent.”
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