Vasiliy Lomachenko to make return against Masayoshi Nakatani after eight months out following shock Teofimo Lopez loss
VASILIY LOMACHENKO is set to make his return against Masayoshi Nakatani after eight months out following shock defeat to Teofimo Lopez.
The Ukrainian was dethroned of his lightweight and pound-for-pound crown last October after the upset loss.
Lomachenko was irate by the scorecards – despite many feeling Lopez was deserving of the win – and lobbied for a rematch.
But having undergone shoulder surgery for an injury he claimed hampered his performance, the slick southpaw is on the comeback trail.
Lopez, 23, is off the market as he faces George Kambosos, 27, in a mandatory defence.
But Lomachenko, 33, will instead fight Japan’s Nakatani, 32, on June 26 in Las Vegas.
Nakatani’s only loss coincidently came against Lopez and he currently has a record of 19-1.
The current lightweight king admitted he learned a lot from his breakthrough win over Lomachenko, but there is no love lost between them.
Lopez told TMZ: “Just like I learned from everybody that I faced.
“But mainly, yeah, with Lomachenko, I did. There’s a lot of things that I grabbed off of him.
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“We already know what we were going to do in camp and going into the fight.
“But then there was nice things that I grabbed and now I take it into my own craft now.
“Thanks, Loma. Even though f*** you, but thank you.”