The unification fight between lightweight champions Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Vasily Lomachenko is on hold. IBF champion Lomachenko’s manager, Egis Klimas, revealed that Loma isn’t motivated to fight WBA champion Tank Davis right now.
Klimas says Lomachenko can’t prepare for the fight if he’s not motivated; right now, he’s not excited about it.
The fight could still happen later this year, but it will be up to Lomachenko to decide if he’s interested in fighting. He’s coming off an eleventh-round knockout win over former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. on May 12th in Perth, Australia. He’s not interested in returning to action right now.
Klimas told Steve Kim on X that Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) is “not in the mood right now. He doesn’t have the motivation at that moment.”
Fans want to see the Tank-Lomachenko fight because it would be Tank’s first fight of his 11-year professional career, and he could lose.
Until now, Tank Davis’ management and previous promoters matched him to keep him out of harm’s way, so there’s never faced a quality guy like Lomachenko.
If Lomachenko does choose to take the remainder of this year off without fighting Gervonta (30-0, 28 KOs), there will be a lot of grumbling from and who will see it as a case of him ducking the fight. But Lomachenko is 36 and fights when he wants to at this point. Money is not Loma’s motivation like it is for other fighters.
“With Loma, just money is not what motivates him,” said Klimas. “He doesn’t take anything just because of money. 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 would get the biggest payday of his career fighting Tank Davis, but it’s unclear how the money would change Loma’s life.
Tank’s style of fighting, in which he throws very few punches and just waits to land a KO shot, is not motivating for Lomachenko. He’s too passive and looks to load up on a kill shot. Lomachenko would box Tank’s head off, leaving him only a small handful of opportunities to land, and leave it up to the judges to score the fight fairly or not..
