Arum: Lomachenko's Next NYC Fight Will be at MSG's Main Arena

[Ruthless-RKO]

Tickets to the card headlined by Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) and Cuba’s Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC) sold out in three days. That box-office performance has encouraged Madison Square Garden officials to stage Lomachenko’s next fight in New York in their main arena, which can accommodate roughly 20,000 fans for boxing.

Arum discussed Lomachenko’s development as a draw with Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett during his recent appearance on the longtime boxing enthusiast’s podcast, “Walking the Floor.”

“The Loma-Rigo fight sold out in three days at The Theater at Madison Square Garden,” Arum said. “And Joel Fisher, who runs events at The Garden, told me that the next time we bring Loma back to New York, it has to be in the big building because Lomachenko will easily sell it out. And the reason he says that is since we’ve announced the sellout, they get about 50 to 60 calls every day basically from Ukrainians who live in Brooklyn and other places in New York, looking to buy tickets to the fight. And when [Wladimir] Klitschko, which was the last terrific Ukrainian fighter to fight in The Garden, they came close to a sellout. And Lomachenko will do the same, maybe more. And I think with the platform we now have at ESPN, where a lot of their programming will be devoted to boxing … they’re beginning to talk more and more about boxing, and more and more about Lomachenko, and before you know it, I think he can be an icon.

“I mean, Golovkin became pretty well known and was able to sell out, or came close to selling out The Garden. And Lomachenko, I think will exceed that. And the reason for that is Golovkin struggled with English, and to this day really isn’t articulate in English. And Lomachenko is so damn smart that when I told him to about six, nine months ago to be serious and study English, he came back three months later fluent in English. He’s an amazing, amazing guy.”