Photo: Naoki Fukuda

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has a press conference tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday to formally announce a junior lightweight title bout involving Vasyl Lomachenko. But the jury is still out on who the two-time Olympic gold medalist will face.

Lomachenko seemed to be in line to face Roman “Rocky” Martinez on June 11 on HBO at Madison Square Garden’s Theater. But now Javier Fortuna, who owns the “regular” WBA junior lightweight title, has emerged in the running to also face Lomachenko on the date, Lomachenko manager Egis Klimas informed RingTV.com on Thursday.

Both WBO featherweight titleholder Lomachenko and Martinez seemed to be in each other’s crosshairs. But Klimas said nothing has been signed and now Fortuna is also negotiating for the fight. “Let’s put it like this,” Klimas said in a phone interview. “Whoever signs the contract first will get the fight. We don’t care who we face as long as it’s for a title.”

The highly-regarded lightweight Felix Verdejo (20-0, 14 KOs) will take part in the televised co-feature in a step-up bout, presumably against Jose Felix Jr.(33-1-1, 25 KOs), who appears to be the leading candidate. Of course, Verdejo has to survive Saturday’s matchup with Jose Luis Rodriguez (18-8, 11 KOs), which he is expected to do.

Arum went through a lot to finalize the June 11 card. He was initially trying to match the supremely talented Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) with former featherweight titleholder Nicholas Walters. Arum flirted with Showtime to see if the rival network would bite on the card. Arum eventually went back to HBO but Walters soon dropped out when his financial demands exceeded the show’s budget, Arum says. Eventually Top Rank settled on Martinez, the WBO junior lightweight champion.

Now, it could be the 26-year-old, heavy-handed Fortuna (29-0-1, 21 KOs), Klimas said. No matter what, Lomachenko will attempt to win a title in a second weight class in June. The question remains, though against whom? All that is certain at this point is that it won’t be Walters.