Vasyl Lomachenko turns down massive fight to stay in Ukraine and defend country, opening door for Devin Haney to face George Kambosos Jr instead

Vasall Lomachenko has turned down the opportunity to leave Ukraine and train for a fresh world title fight with George Kambosos Jr.

Loma lost his belts to Teofimo Lopez in a big upset at the end of 2020, but bounced back last year with two good wins which put him in position to fight for the titles again.

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In another big upset, Australia's Kambosos Jr dethroned Lopez back in November and is now looking for his first defence.

The two top contenders to get this fight have always been Lomachenko and America's Devin Haney.

Loma surged into pole position as he agreed to travel face the champion in his own country on June 5. It's understood that the deal for the fight was all-but done.

However, when Russia invaded Ukraine he went straight home to be with his family.

Lomachenko also signed up for his local territorial defence force.

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Over the weekend, promoter Bob Arum revealed that his fighter had been offered the chance by government officials to leave the country to train for the fight.

On Monday night though, it emerged that Lomachenko has turned down this opportunity and, with it, the opportunity to win back the belts against Kambosos Jr.

As a result, the Australian confirmed that his team have now offered the fight to Haney on June 5 instead.

Kambosos Jr holds the WBA, WBC 'franchise', IBF and WBO lightweight world titles following his win over Lopez, while Haney holds the standard WBC title.

There is a dispute in the boxing world as to whether the WBC's 'franchise' belt should count as a genuine world title and so whether Kambosos Jr has the right to call himself undisputed champion.

The fight with standard WBC champion Haney will settle this argument.