ESPN’s best pound-for-pound fighter has a new day to confront one particular of boxing’s rising stars.
Lightweight titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko is scheduled to confront Teofimo Lopez in a unification bout on Sept. 19, Prime Rank chief Bob Arum informed ESPN’s Mark Kriegel.
Lomachenko, who holds the WBO and WBA light-weight belts, was originally scheduled to encounter Lopez, who holds the IBF belt, on May 30 at Madison Square Backyard. But that battle was scrapped since of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) has not been in the ring due to the fact October 2019, when he received a unanimous final decision about Luke Campbell. It was only the 2nd time because 2014 that he didn’t earn by means of stoppage.
Lopez (15-, 12 KOs) gained one particular of the 4 main belts in the 130-pound division when he stopped Richard Commey in December 2019. The Brooklyn native, who was ESPN’s 2018 prospect of the 12 months, fought four occasions final calendar year as he ramped up towards a belt.
The undefeated titleholder had previously complained about the negotiations with Lomachenko, who went again to his home place of Ukraine for the duration of the pandemic.
“I try to make these fights happen for the lovers, the admirers are the kinds that win at the end of the day. But truthfully, we are not heading to hold out on this man,” Lopez explained in March. “We gave him all the things he demands and every little thing he needs, and now he’s complaining about New York, he desires it in Vegas, he wants it in Cali. It is been troublesome.”
The two fighters are represented by Best Rank. In May, Arum told ESPN both of those fighters have been adamant about a showdown in 2020, even if the instances had been atypical since of the pandemic.
“In speaking with Lomachenko and Lopez, neither of them want an interim battle,” Arum mentioned. “So we would program to do that in September, with or without having an audience.”
Arum earlier suggested that the struggle would be a spend-for each-watch bout that could even now be an event in Las Vegas that adheres to present-day security protocols. Since early June, Leading Rank has hosted numerous playing cards for each week in the city.
Egis Klimas, who manages Lomachenko, informed ESPN in May perhaps there is no concern about getting no supporters in attendance.
“Nothing at all issues,” Klimas claimed. “As very long as Lopez is coming in the ring with Lomachenko.”
