Vasily Lomachenko’s manager, Egis Kimas, revealed that Loma isn’t motivated right now to fight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. He says he’s “not in the mood.”
Klimas states that IBF lightweight champion Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) will not fight until later this year. He’s not retiring, and he just wants to spend time with his family following his 11th-round knockout victory over George Kambosos Jr. on May 12th.
It’s unclear how this will impact a unification fight with Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) because that match wasn’t expected to occur until November at the earliest.
“Loma is not in the mood right now, he doesn’t have the motivation at the moment. He’s taking off; he wants to spend more time with the family. He doesn’t want to do anything till the end of the year,” said Egis Klimas to Steve Kim on X, about Vasily Lomachenko not interested in fighting right now.
Lomachenko has made enough money to kick back, so you can’t blame him for not wanting to rush back into another grueling training camp. His dad reportedly convinced him to come back and fight Kambosos Jr. after he’d been out of the ring for a year after losing a controversial 12-round decision against Devin Haney on May 20, 2023.
Unless Team Tank was trying to push for the fight to happen earlier than November, it shouldn’t be a big deal that Lomachenko won’t be available to fight until later this year.
Fans on social media view this news as a signal that Lomachenko, 36, is ducking the fight with Gervonta, but that doesn’t sound realistic. Lomachenko has been pushing for a fight with Gervonta for the last six years with no luck until now.
If Lomachenko wants to take the remainder of the year off, Tank and his team will need to consider other options for a fight in November or December unless they want to take the remainder of 2024 off.
Shakur Stevenson, WBC lightweight champion, would jump at the chance to fight Tank Davis in November or December.
Tank only fought once in 2023 against Ryan Garcia, so it shouldn’t be a big deal if he sits and waits until the Lomachenko fight in 2025.
“So he’s definitely not coming to the ring until the end of the year,” Klimas continued about IBF lightweight champion Lomachenko. “With Loma, just money is not what motivates him. He doesn’t take anything just because of money.”
Lomachenko has got to be motivated to fight right now, and if he feels he needs more time to restore his motivation before taking the fight with Tank, it’s understandable. That’s the type of fight where Lomachenko must be 100% motivated because he would be the underdog and expected to lose by knockout.
It wouldn’t have been that way if Tank had fought Lomachenko six years ago when he first showed interest in fighting him, but he and his team waited until now to take the fight with him. Was that a calculated move on Tank and his team’s part? It’s possible. They aged him before pulling the trigger on the fight.
“You can offer him millions, tens of millions of dollars. If he doesn’t have motivation, he’s not ready to prepare for the fight. (Lomachenko) is not retired,” said Klimas.
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