Vasiliy Lomachenko withdraws from Kambosos bout to fight Russia

Vasiliy Lomachenko will not leave Ukraine to train for a June 5 fight against undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos.

BoxingScene.com was first to report the story.

Lomachenko returned from Greece in late February to join a territorial defense battalion to fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, last week, it was reported that Lomachenko's team was working on a plan to allow the former three-division world champion and pound-for-pound king to leave his native country to prepare for Kambosos. But it appears that didn't come to fruition.

Both Lomachenko and Kambosos previously agreed to terms to fight on June 5 in an ESPN-televised main event from Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. However, Kambosos' promoter, Lou DiBella, of DiBella Entertainment, told BoxingScene.com on Monday afternoon that Egis Klimas, Lomachenko's manager, informed him earlier in the day that his fighter would remain in Ukraine. As a result, DiBella has turned his attention to staging a bout between Sydney's Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs), and Vegas-based Devin Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) on the same date.

The 23-year-old Haney, who outpointed JoJo Diaz last December 4 in Las Vegas, holds the WBC version of the 135-pound title. Kambosos holds the IBF, WBA, WBA, WBC franchise, and WBO lightweight belts after defeating former undisputed champion Teofimo Lopez last November in New York. The "undisputed" debate has been a hot topic since the creation of the WBC franchise belt in June 2019.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced last June that Lopez, who defeated Lomachenko in October 2020 by unanimous decision, was undisputed champion. Therefore, Haney is more or less the equivalent of the WBA's "regular" titlist. However, the winner of the Kambosos-Haney fight will settle the debate once-and-for-all.