Vasiliy Lomachenko's Next Opponent

Vasiliy Lomachenko's comeback is confirmed, and the conversation around who he faces has moved quickly to one name in particular.

Shakur Stevenson has emerged as one of the most compelling options available — a fight that would give Lomachenko's comeback a chance to win a world title.

Stevenson holds the WBO junior welterweight title and has previously expressed a public desire to fight Lomachenko. The Ukrainian, for his part, has made clear that he is only interested in the big fights. A world title shot at 140 pounds against an unbeaten champion who has called for the fight publicly ticks every requirement Lomachenko has set for his return.

The appeal of the fight extends beyond the title. Lomachenko moving up to 140 pounds to challenge Stevenson would be a contest between two of the most technically gifted fighters the sport has produced in recent years — a former unified lightweight champion and three-weight world champion against an unbeaten pound-for-pound talent who has barely been tested. The stylistic questions it raises are genuinely interesting, and the possibility of Lomachenko becoming a four-weight world champion sets the narrative.

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Stevenson has his own reasons to want it. He has been linked with Devin Haney and other welterweight names as potential opponents, but a defence of his WBO super lightweight title against Lomachenko would carry a different kind of credibility, a legacy fight. Loma’s former promoter, Bob Arum, has doubts over his comeback.

“Well, you know, again, I don’t know what his financial situation is. He earned a lot of money with us. But you know, he lives in the Ukraine, and there are a lot of problems there, and maybe he needs money, or maybe he’s just anxious to get out of the house. I don’t know what, if anything, Lomachenko has lost with a 2-year retirement. So, for me to hypothesize how he would do with all these younger guys would be wrong. We’ll just have to see,” Arum said