Egis Klimas: Plan Is To Have Vasiliy Lomachenko Fight Winner Of Raymundo Beltran vs. Jose Pedraza
Vasiliy Lomachenko’s first fight after recovering from surgery figures to be a lightweight title unification fight, according to manager Egis Klimas.
Klimas spoke to ESPN to give an update on the WBA lightweight champion’s recovery from shoulder surgery. Klimas also added that the plan is to have Lomachenko fight the winner of the Raymundo Beltran vs. Jose Pedraza fight for the WBO lightweight title on August 25. The manager said he spoke with Top Rank CEO Bob Arum to confirm that is the plan moving forward and that such a title unification would take place on a December Top Rank card on ESPN+.
“He’s working with his physical therapist. I think it’s healing very good… As far as the future, I just hung up [the phone] with Arum and the plan is Beltran is fighting Pedraza on August 25 and the winner [is] gonna be unifying titles with Lomachenko on December 1,” Klimas said.
Before undergoing shoulder surgery, Lomachenko was figured to be fighting Beltran on the August 25 boxing card. Lomachenko won the title back in May at Madison Square Garden when he knocked out then-champion Jorge Linares.
The fight between Beltran and Pedraza will headline a Top Rank world title doubleheader from Arizona. Beltran will be defending his world title for the first time against Pedraza, the current WBO Latino lightweight champion and former super featherweight champion. The other world title fight is Isaac Dogboe defending his WBO super bantamweight title for the first time against Hidenori Otake.