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Vasiliy Lomachenko will return from shoulder surgery when he faces Jose Pedraza on Dec. 8 at Madison Square Garden in a lightweight unification fight.

Lomachenko tore the labrum in his right shoulder while knocking out Jorge Linares on May 12, also at MSG.

The fight against Pedraza will mark the fourth time the three-division world champion from Ukraine will be in the main event at MSG. It will come inside the Theater, where he stopped Cuba’s Guillermo Rigondeaux last December in the first pro bout between twotime Olympic gold medalists.

The bout was announced Tuesday by Top Rank.

Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) will defend the WBA version of the 135-pound title against Pedraza (25-1, 12 KOs), a Puerto Rican who won the WBO title in August.

Defenseman Shea Theodore ended his holdout Monday night, agreeing to a seven-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Theodore’s deal runs through the 2024-25 season and has an average annual value of $5.2 million.

McPhee said the main issue between the team and Theodore’s camp was the Golden Knights were asking him to sign long-term, while the fourthyear pro was looking for a twoyear deal. McPhee also said the long-term deal was about managing the salary cap properly, and leaving enough space over the next few years, giving the Golden Knights a better chance to continue as a Western Conference contender.

Global survey says sports execs oppose esports

A global survey of sports industry executives shows 57 percent oppose Olympic status for video gaming.

Audit firm PwC says more than 400 sports industry professionals from 42 countries answered an online questionnaire for its annual survey. The findings were discussed Tuesday at the Olympic Museum, where the IOC hosted an esports conference in July on possible Olympic status for the booming games market.

The PwC survey asked “Is esports an Olympic sport?”: 28 percent said “no, because esports does not qualify as ‘sport’” and 29 percent said esports should grow independently of the Olympics.

A further 26.7 percent said esports must first unify under a single governing body, and 10.4 percent said esports should join “as soon as possible.”