It’ll be a battle of Olympic gold medalists for the WBA, WBO, and WBC lightweight titles this August.
Vasiliy Lomachenko is heading to the United Kingdom for his next fight.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and reigning WBA and WBO lightweight champion is scheduled to take on fellow Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell on August 31st in London. In addition to Lomachenko’s two titles on the line, the WBC belt recently vacated by Mikey Garcia is also up for grabs — in other words, the winner has three of the four major belts at 135 lbs.
This was slated to go to a purse bid had Top Rank and Matchroom failed to come to terms, but the WBC confirmed that the two sides have agreed to a deal to make the fight happen, thus no purse bid as planned.
Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) is widely considered the best boxer in the world. The Ukrainian recently took care of woefully overmatched Anthony Crolla in April, thus satisfying his obligations to defend his WBA title against the sanctioning body’s mandatory challenger. His best wins include Guillermo Rigondeaux, Jorge Linares, Gary Russell Jr, and Roman “Rocky” Martinez. He has consistently dazzled in the ring and won world titles in three weight classes.
Campbell (20-2, 16 KOs) won gold in front of his home fans at the 2012 Olympics in London. He turned pro in 2013 and won his first dozen fights, but lost a split decision to Yvan Mendy. The 31-year-old eventually worked his way towards his first world title shot against then-WBA champ Jorge Linares, who dropped Campbell and bested him by split decision. Campbell has since won three straight, albeit with two of them essentially tune-ups, while he avenged his defeat to Mendy last September.
This is one of the best possible matchups at 135 lbs for Lomachenko. He will still be a considerable favorite over Campbell, but that speaks more to how great Loma is than anything about “Cool Hand” Luke. It’ll be southpaw vs. southpaw and a big title fight in front of a raucous crowd in London.
Broadcast details are not yet confirmed as of this writing, although it’s expected that Sky Box Office PPV will carry the event in the United Kingdom, while ESPN will televise the bout in the United States.