Campbell-Haney a possibility if he beats Lomachenko

When the WBC made the vacant lightweight title up for grabs between Vasiliy Lomachenko and Luke Campbell, the first person who wasn’t a fan of the contest was Matchroom Promoter, Eddie Hearn. The move at the time had Lomachenko leapfrog the entire division of the WBC rankings and pushed back a matchup between Matchroom stablemates Devin Haney and Campbell.

If Campbell can pull off an upset of beating Lomachenko on August, we could have that matchup come to fruition by December. Hearn laid out the details of this match taking place on Thursday during a conference call to promote Haney taking on Zaur Abdullaev on September 13 in New York City.

Hearn: Campbell Would Face Haney In December If He Upsets Loma https://t.co/zj1yxlY1cX pic.twitter.com/SIMsWpjRN2

— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) August 9, 2019

“The reason that we take this fight,” Hearn explained on the call, “even though there is a little bit of uncertainty, as to when [Haney] would get that world title shot, I think the pressure that you can apply publicly, politically, to say, ‘Look, we’ve won the eliminator. We want the winner of Lomachenko-Campbell.’ I mean, if all goes well, our guy, Luke Campbell, will beat Lomachenko and he’ll fight Devin Haney in December. That’s a dream scenario for us. You know, obviously Lomachenko’s the favorite in that fight, and if Lomachenko was to win, we will get the megaphone out, and we will make sure that the whole America demands to see that fight. That’s how you get fights made.”

That megaphone Hearn mentioned may have to leave a voicemail message cause if Lomachenko wins, he would more than certain face the winner of Richard Commey-Teofimo Lopez contest that was recently ordered by the IBF. That match would likely happen first because Lomachenko, promoted by Top Rank Boxing, would face either IBF winner as both fighters are under the Top Rank stable. That contest will supersede any mandatory challenger if Haney wins against Abdullaev upcoming.

Hearn knows this and explained as much on the call as well.

“I believe that Devin Haney’s profile is rising and rising, and people are gonna watch him time and time again,” Hearn said on the call. “And if he can beat Abdullaev, the world is gonna wanna see Devin Haney fight the winner of Luke Campbell and Lomachenko. They’re not gonna wanna see Teofimo Lopez-Richard Commey. They’re not gonna wanna see the winner of that fight. They’re gonna wanna watch Devin Haney box the winner of that fight. And it’s our job to make sure that we apply the pressure. But it’s not looking past Abdullaev, because it’s a tough, tough fight. But also knowing that we must get that 135-pound world title shot within the next six months.”

We’ll wait and see if that match plays out, but one thing for sure is we have some very entertaining matchups at 135 lb. division upcoming.