By Jake Donovan

Richard Commey achieved one career goal in winning his first major title, but it perhaps comes at the cost of losing out on much loftier plans in mind.

The thrill of his lightweight-title 2nd round knockout of Isa Chaniev over the weekend is dampened by news of the newly crowned champ suffering an injury which could postpone plans for a coveted April 12 unification clash with Vasiliy Lomachenko.

What was thought to be a bruised knuckle is now believed to be a floating tendon across the middle knuckle of his right hand, as was discovered during a doctor’s visit on Tuesday. A full MRI examination scheduled for this Thursday will provide the full extent of the injury, but for now looks to be enough to put the newly crowned titlist—and his desired showdown with Lomachenko—on ice.

For now, the rest of the team is holding out hope.

“Richard will go in for an MRI and by Thursday of this week, we will have the full prognosis,” Lou DiBella, Commey’s promoter told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday.

Commey (28-2, 25KOs) managed to steal the spotlight amidst a loaded “Super Saturday” card in Texas. Far more attention was paid to the pair of bouts on the ESPN+ portion of the evening, which featured Sergey Kovalev’s title-regaining decision win over Eleider Alvarez and 2018 Prospect of the year Teofimo taking a giant leap towards contention following a one-sided drubbing of Diego Magdaleno.

As for the action on ESPN’s flagship network, Commey became the talk of the town despite serving as the lead-in to Oscar Valdez’s ring return, in which he turned away Italy’s Carmie Tommassone in the 7th round of his featherweight title defense.

Talks of a potential showdown with Lomachenko surfaced during fight week, but Commey was fixated upon capturing his first major title. He came up just short in a heartbreaking split decision loss to Robert Easter in their Sept. ’16 vacant title fight, as well as an equally narrow defeat to Denis Shafikov in a title eliminator just three months later.

Four wins have followed, including his explosive three-knockdown performance against Russia’s Chaniev (13-2, 6KOs) who was fighting for the first time both in the United States and for a major title. Commey certainly looked the part of a boxer who’d been here before, dropping Chaniev in round one and twice more in a truncated round two lasting just 0:39.

By that point, however, the literal damage was done as Commey believed to have suffered his injury in the opening round. The early, highly unofficial diagnosis was a bruised knuckle, which could naturally heal with enough time to prepare for just a two-month turnaround.

Depending on the severity of the tendon injury, the Ghana-bred lightweight—who turns 34 in March—could be looking at a two-month period on the injured list alone before being able to return.

Meanwhile, Lomachenko and his handlers are forced to revisit an ordered mandatory defense versus former titlist Anthony Crolla.

The two-time high-ranking pound-for-pound entrant from Ukraine became a three-division titlist following an off-the-canvas stoppage win over Jorge Linares last May in New York City.

The feat was followed up by his first career title unification clash, a 12-round win over Jose Pedraza last December. As boxers collect multiple belts in a weight class, there increases the likelihood of a mandatory title defense being well within the future.

As much is the case for Lomachenko, who just last month was mandated by the World Boxing Association (WBA) to next defend versus Anthony Crolla, who held the same title for 10 months prior to his Sept. ’16 loss to Linares in their first fight.

Crolla fell well short in their March ’17 rematch, having since won three straight. Included among the recent streak is a 12-round decision over Daud Yordan in their title eliminator last November in Manchester, England.

Sanctioning bodies will normally grant an exemption in the event of title unification clashes. However, Lomachenko’s options are limited, already owning two belts and with Commey awaiting final MRI results before determining his own next steps.

The only remaining major title at lightweight belongs to Mikey Garcia, who will hold onto his WBC lightweight strap at least through his March 16 showdown versus Errol Spence. Garcia is moving up two divisions to challenge for Spence’s welterweight title.

Working in Lomachenko’s favor for the moment is the fact that an originally scheduled February 6 purse bid hearing for his ordered bout with Crolla has been postponed until February 13.

By that time, it will be known whether a unification bout with Commey is still salvageable.

“Once we have the results of his MRI exam, we can firmly dictate when Richard Commey will next defend his title,” DiBella states. “Obviously, the fight he wants the most right now is versus Vasiliy Lomachenko.”