“Well, you know, again, I don’t know what his financial situation is. He earned a lot of money with us. But you know, he lives in the Ukraine, and there are a lot of problems there, and maybe he needs money, or maybe he’s just anxious to get out of the house,” said Arum to Fighthype.
Arum’s comments caught the eye because promoters rarely speculate publicly about whether a returning fighter could be motivated by finances. Lomachenko has not fought since stopping George Kambosos Jr. in May 2024 to capture the IBF lightweight title before later stepping away from boxing.
The former three-division world champion is now 38 years old and had already shown signs of decline during the later stages of his run at lightweight. Losses to Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney, along with a difficult physical stretch at 135 pounds, created questions about how much Lomachenko still had left even before his long absence from the ring.
Arum admitted he does not know what version of Lomachenko would return if the comeback moves forward.
“I don’t know what, if anything, Lomachenko has lost with a 2-year retirement. So, for me to hypothesize how he would do with all these younger guys would be wrong. We’ll just have to see,” said Arum.
The interviewer specifically asked Arum whether Lomachenko could still compete against younger names such as Shakur Stevenson, Abdullah Mason and Raymond Muratalla, but Arum avoided making predictions.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the comeback, Arum still praised Lomachenko as one of the best fighters Top Rank promoted during his era with the company.
“Loma represents the best of what boxing has to offer. So I wish him the best because he was a great great warrior for us and he really epitomizes the best in boxing,” said Arum.
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