Vasyl Lomachenko Echos In A New Era of Boxing!
By Bradley “The Bulldog” Johnson
Vasyl Lomachenko, 10-1, 8 KO’s has only fought professionally 11 times. In those 11 fights he has already won world titles in 2 weight classes (126 & 130 lbs.) and is considered by many to be the #1 P4P boxer in the world. Lomachenko is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and had nearly 400 amateur fights complying a record of 396-1.
Vasyl decided he wanted to be different from the very start of his professional career. When Lomachenko was being approached by the top promotional companies, he wasn’t chasing money. He only had one demand, who could get him a championship fight in his very first bout. Although no-one was able to get him a title fight in his first professional fight, Bob Arum and Top Rank agreed to get him a title fight in his second fight. On March 1st of 2014, Lomachenko faced tough veteran Orlando Salido, 41-12-2, 29 KO’s. Salido came in over weight and fought dirty throughout the whole fight hitting Loma below that belt all night, showing Lomachenko the difference between an amateur bout and a professional bout. Lomachenko was forced to adjust on the fly and was handed his first loss as a pro in a controversial split decision where Lomachenko almost finished Salido in the 12th round.
In Lomachenko’ s 3rd fight he did win a world title by defeating Gary Russel Jr. by majority decision at featherweight (126 lbs.). That is the first time in boxing history someone has won a world title in only three fights. Although Lomachenko and team were targeting a rematch with Salido to avenge his loss, Salido was not willing to come to terms realizing he was lucky to escape the first fight with a victory. So Lomachenko moved on to another one of boxing’s firsts by moving up to 130 lbs. to defeat Roman Martinez. In just his 7th professional fight Vasyl Lomachenko won his second world title in two weight classes by 5th round tko.
Throughout boxing history fighters fought very often and continually challenged them self. They would move up and down in weight class and didn’t look at a loss as a career defining moment. A lot of old school fighters also had padded records by fighting several times a month and sometimes not fighting the best opposition, but just staying active. Lots of wins and even some losses came with the territory. The greatest fighters have taken losses throughout their career by throwing caution to the wind and just making fights happen. Sugar Ray Robinson had 19 losses, Muhammad Ali lost 5 times, Willie Pep 11, Harry Greb 17, even Archie Moore lost 23 times and Joe Louis 3 time! My point? One loss does not take away from one’s greatness nor does more than one.
Then came the Mayweather, JR. era. The “0” became the selling point and marketing benchmark. It was no longer about making the hottest fight that can be made. The pendulum had swung from making the best fights to making the most money with the least risk. It was a genius business move to find the essential break even point of keeping the fans interest and keeping a perfect record. After all, the perfect record was used as an illusional carrot stick as opposition and fans were placed on the tread mill to chase it. It’s not that Mayweather isn’t one of the greatest fighters of all time, but he changed the fans perception of the fight game and made a loss now look like the mark of an inferior warrior. It’s not true though. The warrior is the one willing to put themselves in position to go out on their shield for the glory of being great. The warrior is the one that takes the fight they are not supposed to win and still sometimes does. See Ali Vs Foreman 1974.
What Vasyl Lomachenko has done is take that old school mentality of finding the biggest challenge without concern of the biggest payday. His goal is to challenge himself and push his own limits. Although he despises failure, he is constantly risking it to be great. He also decided that there is no need to pad his record just to build up meaningless wins. He doesn’t believe in tune-up fights. Each time he fights and wins it is a legitimate quality opponent. Therefore, we have to throw out the traditional way we look at the number of wins and losses a fighter has. We may need to understand that we could be witnessing an all-time great and he may not even end up with 25 fights in his whole professional career. We also need to realize this fighter may end up with some more losses on his record due to pushing limits beyond any logical expectation.
Tonight, Vasyl Lomachenko looks to make history in boxings historic Madison Square Garden. He has the opportunity to win a 3rd world championship in his 3rd weight class in only his 12th fight when he faces Lightweight champion (135 Lbs.) Jorge Linares. Sit back and watch history, because you may not see this again in your lifetime.
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