Lomachenko and Campbell to battle for vacant WBC Lightweight crown

Vasyl Loamachenko and Luke Campbell have been ordered to fight for the WBC Lightweight title, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“Loma’s goal is to be undisputed lightweight champion and this is another step in that direction, hopefully,” Top Rank’s Carl Moretti told ESPN. “We’d love to do the fight in England. Let’s see where it goes”

Typically, sanctioning bodies do not allow fighters who hold belts from other organizations to fight for their vacant titles, but the WBC does allow it from time to time in the case of elite champions, a category Lomachenko falls into.

Egis Klimas, Lomachenko’s manager, said Lomachenko was thrilled by the WBC’s decision.

“They just do it sometimes for the top guys so that’s why the WBC made the decision and I strongly believe it’s very good news for Team Lomachenko,” Klimas said. “This is Loma’s dream since Day 1, that he wanted to unify all the titles and this is another step. It’s a great opportunity but it won’t be easy because Luke Campbell is a tough fighter and the fight will probably end up in the U.K.”

“I think this kind of a fight will make much more sense to do in the U.K. because Loma is popular in the U.K. and it’s where he won a gold medal,” Klimas said. “We went there recently and all the fans in London were going crazy for him so it makes a lot of sense to do the fight in the U.K.”

“I don’t agree with the WBC ruling at all,” Hearn told ESPN. “I don’t see how another champion should be slotted in to fight for a vacant title when other guys have been working their way up the rankings. If it wasn’t Lomachenko, and it was some low-profile champion, I don’t think it would be considered, so I am disappointed.

“I’d have liked to see Luke box for a vacant title against the highest-rated contender and then fight Lomachenko in a unification fight, but it is what it is. It’s definitely not a fight Luke is going to avoid. I just spoke to him and he’s excited and 100 percent doing the fight. He didn’t do a final eliminator to avoid a shot at the title. So I have already spoken to Carl Moretti about it. They want us to come up with a proposal to do the fight in the U.K.”

In addition to ordering Lomachenko-Campbell, the WBC also announced it was ordering a four-man box-off to determine the mandatory challenger for the winner. Although the fighters have not necessarily committed to the box-off, the WBC called for Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (11-0, 7 KOs) to fight Las Vegas’ Devin Haney (21-0, 13 KOs) and for Teofimo Lopez Jr. (13-0, 11 KOs) to fight former junior lightweight titlist Javier Fortuna (34-2-1, 23 KOs) of the Dominican Republic. The winners would then fight each other for the No. 1 spot, although Lopez, for example, is unlikely to participate because he is already scheduled for an elimination bout for another organization on July 19.