Vasyl Lomachenko sets sights on unification showdown with Mikey Garcia after José Pedraza clash

Lomachenko, the reigning WBA (Super) and Ring magazine lightweight champion, is due to fight WBO champion Jose Pedraza on December 8

Adam Hamdani
Thursday 27 September 2018 14:29 BST
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Vasyl Lomachenko is the WBA (Super) lightweight champion
Vasyl Lomachenko is the WBA (Super) lightweight champion

Three-weight world champion Vasyl Lomachenko has said he wants to fight Mikey Garcia for undisputed lightweight supremacy in 2019, dampening speculation that he will box either Anthony Crolla or Luke Campbell.

Lomachenko, the reigning WBA (Super) and Ring magazine lightweight champion, is due to fight WBO champion Jose Pedraza on December 8.

And, beyond that, the Ukrainian has his sights set on the undefeated Garcia in an attempt to simultaneously hold all four world titles.

“My next fight in December is with Pedraza to unify titles, after this we can talk about 2019,” he told Sky.

“I think it will be Mikey Garcia because he has two titles and the winner takes it all.

“Now, I stop at 135lbs and after a couple of years I go up to 140. It depends on how I feel and my size. Nobody knows what will happen over the years, maybe I could even go down.

“My father taught me boxing and showed me what this beautiful sport means.”

Despite appearing to rule out boxing any British fighters in the immediate future, Lomachenko added that he loves visiting the UK because of its fighting pedigree.

Mikey Garcia currently holds the WBC and IBF lightweight titles

Lomachenko was in the UK on Saturday to watch Anthony Joshua defeat Alexander Povetkin at Wembley, as well as the Oleksandr Usyk vs Tony Bellew press conference in Manchester earlier this week.

“People understand boxing in the UK, the fans love it,” he added.

“I've fought twice here in the amateurs. Boxing is born in England. [To fight here] I need to take on top fighters, the ones with high skill, I need a challenge.”

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