Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr. will meet for the vacant IBF 135-pound title Saturday evening (U.S. time) in Australia on ESPN and ESPN+.

VASILIY LOMACHENKO (17-3, 11 KOs)
VS. GEORGE KAMBOSOS JR. (21-2, 10 KOs)

  • Date: Saturday, Could 11 (in U.S.)
  • Time: 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT (most important occasion later in present)
  • The place: RAC Area, Perth, Australia
  • TV/Stream: ESPN, ESPN+
  • Division: Light-weight (135 kilos)
  • At stake: Vacant IBF title
  • Boxing Junkie Pound-for-pound: Lomachenko No. 13
  • Odds: Lomachenko 5½-1 favourite (common of a number of shops)
  • Significance (as much as 5 stars): *****
  • Additionally on the cardboard: Nina Hughes vs. Cherneka Johnson, bantamweights (for Hughes’ WBA title); Andrew Moloney vs. Pedro Guevara, junior bantamweights; Imam Khataev vs. Ricards Bolotniks, gentle heavyweights; Joe Goodall vs. Djanago Opelu, heavyweights
  • Background: Lomachenko, the 36-year-old boxing wizard from Ukraine, hasn’t held a serious world title since he misplaced his 135-pound belts to Teofimo Lopez in 2020 but continues to be thought-about among the best boxers on the planet. He bounced again from the loss by stopping Masayoshi Nakatani in June 2021 after which defeating Richard Commey by a one-sided determination that December. He has fought sporadically since Russia invaded his nation in February 2022, getting into the ring solely twice. He simply outpointed Jamaine Ortiz in October of that 12 months. Then the previous three-division champion bought his likelihood to regain previous glory in a gathering with then-undisputed 135-pound champ Devin Haney in Could of final 12 months. Lomachenko gave a sometimes sturdy efficiency in opposition to his extremely rated opponent however misplaced a disputed determination, 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. He’ll get one other crack at a belt in opposition to Kambosos in Australia. Kambosos shocked the boxing world by defeating Lopez to win a break up determination and three 135-pound belts in 2021. It was downhill after that, as he misplaced back-to-back one-sided selections to Haney. He rebounded to beat Maxi Hughes by a majority determination however he wasn’t convincing final July.