Top Rank’s Bob Arum has plans for Vasiliy Lomachenko, who will soon be making his return to the ring to face Jamaine Ortiz in New York according to the longtime promoter.
First, Arum will have Lomachenko come back against Ortiz in order for him to get back in the groove of things after taking some time away from the sport to deal with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“If he [Lomachenko] is successful in that, then at the start of the year we’ll do what will be a massive fight – Lomachenko attempting to get all his titles back against Devin Haney,” Arum said.
That, of course, presumes that Haney beats George Kambosos in their upcoming rematch. But if Haney does win, Arum sees that as the next natural fight to be made in the division — a sentiment echoed by Top Rank’s Todd duBoef, who says that Lomachenko is anxious to get the belts back around his waist after having lost them to Teofimo Lopez.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman also seems to be fully on board with sanctioning (or ordering) that fight as well, mentioning that it’s only fair for Lomachenko to get a chance to reclaim the belts after everything he’s both accomplished and been through recently.
Before any of that can happen, however, both Lomachenko and Haney will need to handle business in their respective upcoming outings.