Bob Arum plans Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Roman Martinez, Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol

Bob Arum wasn't able to come to terms with Nicholas Walters for an intriguing fight against Vasyl Lomachenko this June at Madison Square Garden, so he's now moving on. Arum is currently working on a deal to put Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) in against WBO junior lightweight champion Roman "Rocky" Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs) in its place. While perhaps not a better fight for hardcore boxing fans, this fight might actually be better suited for the local audience as it would feature a Puerto Rican fighter in an event centered around the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City.

Arum had be hoping to find some middle ground with Walters on his purse demands, but apparently Walters wasn't willing to concede enough to bring the fight to fruition. According to Arum, Walters wanted $1M for the Lomachenko fight, but that number was just about the entirety of what HBO was offering for the fight. Arum suggests that Walters did come down some on his asking price, and that Top Rank was willing to lose some money just to make it happen, but it just wasn't enough.

In the end, Walters is said to have declined Top Rank's final offer of a $550,000 purse to take on Lomachenko, which would have been his career-high by a significant amount. Walters might've even earned as much as $850,000 for the fight after Lomachenko offered to give Walters an additional $300,000 -- if Walters could beat him. Unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be...

On another front, Arum mentions that he's also in the midst of putting together a July 23rd HBO PPV card that would feature Terence Crawford taking on Viktor Postol in a 140lb title unification bout. Arum says that deal is nearly complete and would be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I'm not certain that Crawford is ready to headline a PPV card at this point -- particularly against someone like Postol who while a good fighter, just isn't a big name -- but I suppose we'll see how that pans out.