Home Boxing News Tim Bradley accuses Vasiliy Lomachenko of ducking Tank Davis after negotiations for...

Tim Bradley accuses Vasiliy Lomachenko of ducking Tank Davis after negotiations for lightweight unification bout are called off

Vasyl Lomachenko celebrates after knocking out Anthony Crolla. Photo credit: Sumio Yamada

Earlier this month the boxing world got excited when it was announced that preliminary talks were underway to match IBF lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko 18-3 (12) with his WBA counterpart Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis later this year.

Bob Arum, who promotes the 36-year-old Ukrainian southpaw, said he had been speaking to Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas about the Davis fight.

“My feeling is, reading Egis, that it’s a Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis fight. It’s a Vegas fight, MGM or T-Mobile. We’d decide a date where there are openings,” the Top Rank boss said to Fights Around The World.

But now, just a few weeks later, it seems that those plans are off, with Arum citing “stuff to do with Ukraine and his family”.

ESPN boxing analyst and retired former world champion Tim Bradley believes there is a much simpler explanation for why Lomachenko wants to sit out the rest of the year.

“If you want to call this a duck, it’s a duck. There’s no doubt about it, but I think it’s something deeper, because Loma is the type of guy that doesn’t duck any smoke,” Bradley said in an interview on Sean Zittel’s YouTube channel.

“When I look at how he’s been behaving, this isn’t just one time. This is twice. WBC lightweight champion] Shakur [Stevenson] is part of Top Rank. He wanted that fight. Lomachenko pretty much said it, ‘I don’t want the fight right now.’ So not only did he duck Shakur, he ducked Tank.”

Lomachenko is coming off a one-sided 11th round knockout of former Ring Magazine and unified 135-pound champion George Kambosos Jr 21-3 (10) in May, but Bradley says that victory flattered to deceive.

“I think Loma knows. As fighters, we know what we can do and what we can’t. Loma and his team don’t want him to go out on his shield, get knocked out, or get embarrassed,” Bradley theorised.

“He fought Kambosos because he knew that was a fight he could win, win a belt and go out on a high note.”

To hear Bradley tell it, we will never see Lomachenko in a prize ring again.

“I think this is it for Loma. I don’t think Loma returns,” he said. “I only say that because this is the type of guy that doesn’t duck any smoke.

“He fought against Lopez and [Jorge] Linares, and he fought against [Devin] Haney. The last couple of fights that he had were really close, competitive fights.

“The Haney fight really put a dagger in him. He felt he won the fight. Many people watching felt he won the fight. That does something to a fighter and when you have a couple of close calls like that, you say to yourself, ‘F-this game.’”

Bradley added: “Going into a Tank fight, if he puts in a hell of a performance and doesn’t get knocked out and he wins the fight, he’s probably already thinking, ‘Tank is the younger guy. He’s using me for my legacy. I know that.’

“When you’re in the game, you start to realise that you’re just a piece of meat.”