Bob Arum would like to see Devin Haney put all four of his lightweight titles on the line against Vasiliy Lomachenko, on regular ESPN, next year.
“Loma wants that fight next,” Arum said when speaking to Keith Idec of BoxingScene.com. “Egis [Klimas, Lomachenko’s manager] wants the fight next. And Bill Haney wants to do that fight.”
If all parties involved want the fight, then it should be simple right? Just make the fight, but as we’ve seen the method by which the fight gets to viewers can be tricky. A lot of fights that don’t fit the bill of a pay-per-view fight are not being billed as that.
“My hope is to do as few fights on pay-per-view as possible,” said Arum of this fight.“…I really believe that putting these fights on pay-per-view is not a wise thing to do. Now, other people might find difficulty in this. It’s not a wise thing to do because people aren’t buying the pay-per-views. And it costs a lot of money to do it. Even if the fighters don’t take guarantees, they hate you afterward because they haven’t made money. I think that’s the problem Haymon is running into.”
Arum’s short-term goal is clear. Make Haney vs. Lomachenko and put it on regular television, not pay-per-view.
