Devin Haney facing appeal as Vasyl Lomachenko writes to four governing bodies

Vasyl Lomachenko will appeal his controversial points decision defeat to Devin Haney and is demanding a rematch for all four of the American’s lightweight titles. Former three-division world titleholder Lomachenko took on undisputed lightweight champion Haney at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

The 35-year-old challenger appeared to be in with a shot of walking away from the desert with the belts after a close fight went the full distance, but he was left bitterly disappointed when the judges unanimously scored the fight in Haney’s favour.

But now Lomachenko’s camp has decided to take matters further, such is their frustration at the result.

talkSPORT boxing editor, Michael Benson, Tweeted: “Vasyl Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas has now sent letters to the WBA, WBC, IBF & WBO insisting that they will appeal the Devin Haney defeat and asking that they are made mandatory for all four of Haney’s lightweight world titles to try and force a rematch.”

Boxing fans may be enthused by the idea of Haney and Lomachenko going head-to-head in the ring once more, after such a close contest, but that is not how the 24-year-old multiple belt-holder sees it.

Haney was quick to pour cold water on his defeated opponent’s claims and also revealed that he fined $400,000 dollars for pushing the Ukrainian at the weigh-in.

Haney Tweeted: “This guy is a f*****g sore loser. Get this privilege (sic) sore loser out of boxing he makes excuses as he goes! Take your lost (sic) like a man and stop crying.. it was set up for you to win for the 3rd time in your career & you failed! Tell the commission give me my 400k back for that push!”

Lomachenko’s intended appeal is a departure from the more relaxed approach he appeared to take when addressing fans via social media on Tuesday.

Taking to Instagram, he said: “Hi everyone, I’ve received a lot of messages from fans around the world. It’s very, very nice and I’m very happy to read your very, very warm words.

“I just wanted to say a big thank you for your support, [everybody] who came to Saturday night and saw what happened that night. But it is what it is. It’s life, life is not cancelled. God bless all the people around the world.”

Although his camp said that they would be lodging an appeal at the post-fight press conference on Saturday, Lomachenko had admitted to deliberately taking the final round off – something that may have swung the points decision in Haney’s favour.