By Ryan Burton
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is very interested in matching top 2 pound-for-pound fighter Vasiliy Lomachenko (13-1) against rising prospect turned contender Teofimo Lopez (13-0).
In his last outing which took place in April, Lomachenko blasted out an overmatched Anthony Crolla to retain his WBA and WBO lightweight titles. Lopez fought a week later when he stopped Edis Tatli in 5 rounds.
Lomachenko previously stated that he would only fight Lopez if he had a world title. Arum outlined a plan to make both fighters happy.
“Lopez is fighting the Japanese guy (Masayoshi) Nakatani for the #1 position (with the IBF). If he wins then he will fight the Commey-Beltran winner. That fight is June 28th,” Arum told BoxingScene.com.
“Lomachenko then will fight Luke Campbell in England (for the vacant WBC lightweight title) so hopefully all 4 titles will be on the line next year if it’s Loma against Teofimo.”
Lomachenko-Campbell is expected to take place in the late summer with August 31st the likely date for the fight.
Richard Commey will be the betting favorite when he defends his IBF belt against Ray Beltran but Arum believes it would be a mistake to count out the 37-year-old former champion.
“Beltran is a warrior. He’s a really good fighter. Not a great technician but a gutty son of a fun. He is a tough out.”
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