Whatchagonnado: Repeat After Me… Vasyl Lomachenko is the REAL DEAL!

By Roy “Sharpshooter” Bennett

A Star Is Born…

Double Olympic Gold Medal winner Vasyl “Hi Tech” Lomachenko unceremoniously ripped a junior lightweight trinket from the head of Rocky Martinez in New York this past Saturday night. But as impressive as Lomachenko’s win over Martinez was most of us knew going in it would be a tough night at the office for the Puerto Rican. The result is no shock but the emphatic manner of it might surprise a few.

Poor Martinez looked like a kid trying to shoot fish in a barrel from a hundred paces with a slingshot firing marshmallows. In other words, he had no chance of success. Every time he threw he was made to miss and was made to pay a painful price. Shots from all angles bounced off his head at a bewildering rate. It got so bad Martinez became hesitant to let his hands go at all and – somewhere in the recesses of his mind – he decided it was safer to keep his weapons at home and hide behind a high guard.

That’s when Lomachenko stepped things up a gear and took the defending champion out with a picture perfect left uppercut, right hook combination to the chin which Martinez never even saw. As Rocky lay stretched out on the canvas with no hope of getting up you just knew you had witnessed something special. It was as clean a KO as you’ll ever see.

The Ukrainian is a boxing virtuoso. Perfectly poised. He boxes like a musical prodigy playing a Mozart violin concerto. Quite simply he is a joy to watch. In an age where brawn in boxing seems to be valued more than skill, Lomachenko validates the fact that the highest levels in the sport are indeed about mastering the sweet science. First, last, and always.

But as soon as the referee had finished his count over the prostrate form of Martinez,
fans online from the four corners of the world began to debate a fight between Lomachenko and the other double Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux.

In a nutshell the general consensus said Rigondeaux would end up the same way Martinez did. But wait just one damn minute. These two aren’t even in the same weight class. Let’s exercise a little caution here.

But IF this fight could be made at featherweight the vast international amateur experience that Rigondeaux and Lomachenko have acquired would be a very important factor in its outcome. They have both competed against every style imaginable and rest assured they understand the nuances of each. You can also bet they’ve studied each other very closely.

Like Lomachenko, Rigondeaux has excellent balance, counter punching ability, and ring generalship. At his best he is very difficult to hit and can punch a bit himself with either hand. He also goes to the body exceptionally well. Both control distance brilliantly to a level rarely seen nowadays. This skill alone may neutralize the other’s strengths. Make no mistake about it. Both Rigondeaux and Lomachenko know what they’re looking at in relation to the other, and both know a fight between them is probably the toughest challenge out there for each of them at 126 lbs. Lomachenko says he wants to stay at 130lbs to take on the top boxers at the weight. “Line them up,” he was recently quoted as saying. The welterweights and middleweights would do well to follow his example. Vasyl Lomachenko is my kind of boxer. Not afraid of a legitimate challenge. Imagine that?

[si-contact-form form=’2′]