George Kambosos Jr: I respect Lomachenko’s decision, will face him after beating Devin Haney

With Vasiliy Lomachenko staying in Ukraine and not facing George Kambosos Jr on June 5 in Australia, the focus has now shifted to Devin Haney facing Kambosos in a fully undisputed lightweight title fight.

Kambosos sent a Tweet out wishing Lomachenko well, saying he respects his decision and will be waiting for him down the line:

“I respect your decision and I totally understand, and I pray for you and your country,” Kambosos said to Lomachenko. “Please stay safe and once I wipe the floor with Devin, we will make this fight between two real champions. God bless.”

Kambosos (20-0, 10 KO) won the WBA, IBF, and WBO lightweight titles from Teofimo Lopez in a big upset last November, a fight that had been delayed somewhere between six and 115 times, where in the end, Kambosos backed up everything he said going in, which few expected to happen.

Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KO) was impressive in his December fight, dominating Richard Commey and putting himself in position to face Kambosos if that wound up being the deal. Haney (27-0, 15 KO), who holds the WBC title, was the first target for Kambosos, but the sides went back-and-forth with nothing getting done, and Lomachenko became the favorite to head to Australia.

Now, Haney is back in the driver’s seat to get the fight, and probably with more leverage than before. At this point, the only other realistic option is Kambosos facing someone with much less name value. The other major lightweight stars, Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, have fights on May 28 and April 9, respectively, and Davis was never considered to be in the running to go to Australia, anyway, because Mayweather Promotions just aren’t going to have him do that.

If Kambosos-Haney doesn’t get done, the next best option might be someone like Denys Berinchyk, which isn’t the level of fight Kambosos has said he wants.