George Kambosos will not fight Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Lomachenko had agreed last month with a contract against Kambosos on June 5 in Melbourne, Australia, but the two-time Olympic gold medalist has chosen to stay in Ukraine with his family rather than leave the country to train, Kambosos promoter said. Lou DiBella told ESPN on Monday.
Lomachenko, 34, is a member of the Ukrainian security forces working on border security information during the war, which began last month when Russia attacked. Under Ukrainian military law, men 18 to 60 years of age who are considered eligible for military service are not permitted to leave the country, but efforts are being made to allow elite athletes to leave.
"Who can ask, the fight he is currently facing is bigger than any boxing match," said DiBella. “We made an agreement with him, the agreement was made before the attack, we wanted to give him any opportunity according to our legitimate cause and schedule.
"We have nothing but respect for his decision. Kambosos wanted to make sure that once we made that agreement, Lomachenko had enough time to decide.
Meanwhile, Devin Haney, on Monday, was again awarded the undisputed battle of lightweight title against Kambosos on June 5 at Marvel Stadium, sources told ESPN. Haney, 23, has been pushing for a fight but has waited in the wings as a Plan B after Lomachenko agreed on a deal. Haney's contract was similar to the one accepted by Lomachenko, sources said.
"He was given a [war] months ago and played," Kambosos wrote to Haney on Twitter. "Meanwhile the famous man Vasiliy Lomachenko made it easy to do anything to make it happen and an agreement was reached. But Loma now has a great war [at the moment] that I totally respect so let's see how big your battle is. The word is true."
Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) holds the WBC lightweight title and Kambosos is a WBC franchise champion. The Australian is also the owner of three other 135-pound titles and is widely known as the undisputed lightweight champion. If Kamboso and Haney fight each other, there will be no more debate.
"The WBO has made it clear that it will remove George Kambosos Jr. if he can fight anyone other than his co-conspirator, Vasiliy Lomacheko," Kambosos manager Peter Kahn told ESPN. "George did not want to let go of any belt so he would ... fight forcibly. In his mind, he would always win and continue to fight Devin Haney.
"Yes, there were other things that were there about the deals that were presented but they also served another purpose, namely, to keep the belts tight."
Lomachenko, a former three-time champion, lost his joint championship to Lopez in October 2020. He fought with a torn rotator cuff and underwent shoulder replacement surgery. Since then, he has won two consecutive punches: TKO for the ninth round of Masayoshki Nakatani in June followed by a unanimous victory over Richard Commey in December.
Haney, who is struggling to get out of Las Vegas, emerged in 2021 winning decisions in Jorge Linares and Joseph Diaz Jr.
