Pound-for-pound superstar Vasyl Lomachenko is officially heading to Australia for his lightweight world title fight after the date and location was revealed for the showdown against George Kambosos Jr.
Both ‘Loma’ and Kambosos are coming into the bout off of the back of contrastingly controversial fights. The Ukrainian was unfortunate to not get the nod from the judges when he battled then-undisputed champion Devin Haney in April.
Meanwhile, Kambosos bounced back from defeats to Haney himself, with an equally disputable win over Maxi Hughes, where one judge scored the contest 117-111 in the Aussie’s favour to the shock of the viewers.
However, now the pair will meet in a showdown to crown the new IBF World Champion, following on from Haney’s move up to super-lightweight, and it is Kambosos who will have the home advantage, as the 135lbers collide in Perth on May 12th, ESPN reports.
“The Vasiliy Lomachenko-George Kambosos fight for the vacant IBF lightweight title will take place May 12 in Perth, Australia, sources told ESPN on Sunday.
The fight will be televised on ESPN on the night of May 11 in the U.S.”
The card is expected to take place at The RAC Arena, a venue that is yet to host a major boxing event, but hosted UFC 284 last February, where a deafening atmosphere was discovered and will likely be replicated in May.
Fans of the three-division champion will hope that home advantage counts for little, as was the case when Kambosos twice lost to Haney, but Jeff Horn’s shock win over Manny Pacquiao may be in his mind, should he go the distance for a fourth consecutive bout.