Vasiliy Lomachenko is targeting to get back a world title as he battles former champion George Kambosos Jr. for the IBF lightweight belt in Perth, Australia on May 12, 2024. Lomachenko is a two-time Olympic gold medalist who won his first world title in only his third professional fight.
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Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) later became a three-division world champion and unified titles at lightweight. He lost his belts when he suffered an upset defeat to a highly motivated Teofimo Lopez. He recovered and scored spectacular victories against Richard Commey and Jamaine Ortiz.
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One of the most distinguished fights of 2023 happened on May 20, 2023 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight ended in a controversial unanimous decision win for Haney. Haney has now moved up to the super-lightweight division and left the IBF junior lightweight title vacant.
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Lomachenko sets his goal on becoming world champion again. After that he can start thinking about becoming an undisputed world champion. He said he respects Kambosos because he never gives up during a fight. He sees it as a very interesting fight because the two have different styles.
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Vasiliy Lomachenko was so disgusted after losing a controversial decision to Devin Haney for all the lightweight world titles. The scores were 115-113 twice and 116-112, all for Haney.
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Devin Haney is the only man to defeat him. Haney defeated Kambosos (21-2, 10 KOs) on June 5, 2022 for the undisputed lightweight title and then repeated the victory over him in a rematch on October 16 the same year. The two fights were held in Melbourne, Australia.
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Lomachenko was quoted by Boxing News 24: "Our fights with Devin Haney were two different fights. There were two different styles. If we talk about my fight with Haney, I didn't lose that fight, in my opinion. If we talk about Haney-Kambosos, Kambosos had two chances and he lost."
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The Australian answered: "Yes, I lost to Devin Haney, but you had your chance with Teofimo Lopez and you didn't take your chance. I did."
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Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone sets the goal of qualifying in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Cone said the SBP had presented to him its four-year program that would ultimately end with Gilas Pilipinas joining the Olympics for the first time since 1972.
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Cone has put up a 12-man roster that he plans to keep intact for the next four years, but it could have some slight changes. The first assignment is the coming first window of the Fiba Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers where Gilas Pilipinas will face Hong Kong on February 22 and Chinese Taipei on February 25.
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Sports History: February 13, 1990. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics ended his NBA free throw streak of 71 games. But the veteran forward still scored 38 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Celtics to a 107-94 win over the Houston Rockets in Texas.
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February 14, 1951. In the so-called St Valentine's Day Massacre, Sugar Ray Robinson defeated Jake LaMotta in the final battle of their six-fight rivalry, becoming the undisputed world middleweight champion.
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