Egis Klimas is confident that his charge Vasiliy Lomachenko will have an opportunity to regain his lightweight belts in a few months’ time.

Lomachenko, the former unified lightweight champion, is reportedly the frontrunner to face Aussie three-belt champion George Kambosos in Australia.

Klimas, the longtime manager of the Ukrainian whiz, confirmed the chatter.

“I have a very good feeling that the fight is going to happen between Lomachenko and Kambosos,” Klimas said on The 3 Knockdown Rule show. “We’re talking right now about a two-fight deal, including if Lomachenko wins, to do a rematch. I know some interest coming from Australian government.”

For a period, it appeared that WBC lightweight titleholder Devin Haney was leading the race in landing the Kambosos fight. But as Kambosos’ promoter Lou DiBella told BoxingScene.com last week, the Aussie had “moved on'' from fighting Haney, citing lowball offers from Haney's team, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and DAZN.  

Should the deal get consummated between Kambosos and Lomachenko, Klimas believes the fight will land sometime in the early summer.

“We’ve been talking dates,” Klimas said. I don’t know. Hard to say right now. End of May, June, somewhere in that area.”

Mike Coppinger of ESPN reported that the fight is set for June 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, and that Lomachenko has already agreed to the deal. The date and time of the fight, according to Coppinger, will allow ESPN to broadcast the fight on a prime-time slot on Saturday night. Lomachenko is promoted by Top Rank Inc., who is the exclusive boxing content provider for ESPN.

Klimas added that once the fight is signed for, Lomachenko will move immediately to Australia to begin his training camp instead of hosting it from his usual place in California. The reason is that Lomachenko wants to avoid any potential COVID-19 travel bans and restrictions that may imperil the fight. By being in Australia, that risk is removed.

“[Lomachenko is] not just willing to go to Australia, [he’s] willing to move [there] to do camp in Australia a couple months before,” Klimas said. That way we can guarantee the fight is happening [because] the country can be opened and then closed. Let’s say the fight is in May, in March Lomachenko will be in Australia to prepare for the fight.”

“We don’t have any reason why not to go there, including the rematch.”

A Kambosos-Lomachenko bout would bring Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) full circle to the belts that were once in his possession. Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) picked up the three lightweight titles (WBA/WBO/IBF) after he defeated Teofimo Lopez last November by split decision at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City. Lopez, in turn, had won those belts from Lomachenko in their title bout in October of 2020.