Vasiliy Lomachenko wants to fully unify and fight Mikey Garcia

Vasiliy Lomachenko successfully unified the WBA and WBO lightweight titles on Saturday night in New York, outpointing Jose Pedraza at MSG’s Hulu Theater in the ESPN main event.

Asked after the fight about Pedraza (25-2, 12 KO) snapping Lomachenko’s knockout streak, he gave his opponent credit.

“He’s good, he’s a true warrior. He has a very good jab. I respect Pedraza and the Pedraza team,” Lomachenko said, adding, “Of course I’m happy. I got a little closer to my dream, to my goal.”

Asked what he wants next, Lomachenko was short and to the point.

“I want two more belts and maybe next year we can make a fight with Mikey Garcia,” he said.

Garcia, of course, was considered not just one of the two top lightweights in the world alongside Lomachenko, but also one of the best in the world pound-for-pound. But Mikey (39-0, 30 KO) is set to jump two weight classes and challenge welterweight titleholder Errol Spence Jr on March 16. Depending on how that turns out, sure, maybe there’s a chance we see Lomachenko-Garcia in 2019, but I wouldn’t bet on it. There’s still a lot of political stuff at play there, between promoters and TV networks and everything else.