Vasiliy Lomachenko is planning to end his retirement and return to boxing later this year, his manager, Egis Klimas, told ESPN on Wednesday.
"We are working on his comeback this fall," Klimas said.
When Lomachenko does return, he will be a free agent as his contract with Top Rank expired on May 12, and will target the biggest and best fighters in the world.
Lomachenko announced his retirement last June, one year after stopping former undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. There were preliminary talks of a blockbuster fight with Gervonta "Tank" Davis, but the fight never materialized. After taking the rest of 2024 off to mull over his future, Lomachenko released a video announcing that he would end his career at age 37.
At the time of his retirement, Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) was a three-division world champion who was widely recognized as one of the best boxers in the world and a mainstay on pound for pound lists.
"Hi Tech" won his first world championship as a featherweight in his third pro fight after a stellar amateur career in which he won Olympic gold for his native Ukraine at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics and amassed a record of 396-1. He would go on to become a world champion at junior lightweight and lightweight.
After losing a controversial decision to Devin Haney in 2023, he bounced back with a dominant win over Kambosos before ultimately deciding to call it a career.
His return will be highly anticipated due to the change in landscape in the smaller weight classes. He has not announced what weight he will return at but does have plans to compete more than once now that his back issues are seemingly behind him.
