Former three-weight champion Vasily Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) challenges current IBO lightweight titleholder George Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KOs) this Saturday, May 11. The 12-round fight takes place at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
Main card coverage starts Saturday evening at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Ringwalks for the Lomachenko-Kambosos lightweight bout are expected around midnight. This bout will be for the IBF lightweight title.
Both fighters have experienced unified title status at 135 pounds and also suffered their fair share of losses to Devin Haney. Lomachenko achieved lightweight unification status with a win over Luke Campbell back in 2019. However, in his first title defense against Teofimo Lopez, “Loma” lost in October 2020. After Lopez upset Lomachenko, he then lost to Kambosos in June 2022.
Subsequently, in Kambosos’ first title defense of the WBA, IBF, WBO, and The Ring titles he lost to Devin Haney. Ironically, Lomachenko then fell short to Haney by way of unanimous decision last September.
Fight Odds
Lomachenko is the betting favorite with -700 odds to win. Kambosos Jr. is a +475 underdog. The favored method of victory is Lomachenko by decision or technical decision (-175).
Lomachenko-Kambosos lightweight bout prediction
It’ll be interesting to see how Lomachenko comes into this one following a close unanimous decision loss to Haney. Some felt he beat the much younger and flasher fighter, with two of the judges producing close 115-113 scorecards. Prior to this loss, Lomachenko had won three straight over Masayoshi Nakatani, Richard Commey, and Jamaine Ortiz.
Kambosos on the other hand was not as sharp in his last outing, escaping with a controversial majority decision win over Maxi Hughes. In that bout he only landed 19% of his total punches thrown. Hughes caught Kambosos a few times with some counter uppercuts.
“Loma” is 36, but he looked very good against Haney last year. While Kambosos promises a KO that’ll end his opponent’s career, I see Lomachenko cruising to a decision win. Expect Kambosos to come out overly aggressive and watch Lomachenko utilize his precision counter punching ability. I think Lomachenko tags Kambosos late and scores a knockdown. Following that, he’ll do just enough to ensure a UD win.