Vasyl Lomachenko will stop at nothing to rise to top of boxing's pound-for-pound list
His nickname is “Hi-Tech,” surely not your standard boxing moniker. But it should tell you all you need to know about the inimitable style of Vasyl Lomachenko.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, who compiled the incredible amateur record of 396-1, has just nine professional fights under his WBO super featherweight belt. But already he’s a two-division champion and among the top 10 pound-for-pound boxers in the world. And the second of those nine bouts, for the featherweight title, was a split-decision loss to crafty veteran Orlando Salido.
How can that happen? What makes Lomachenko so special that the fight media deems to include him among the best boxers on the planet with a fairly pedestrian 8-1 (6 KOs) record?
If you’ve never seen the 29-year-old southpaw fight, you probably wouldn’t understand. If you have, you already know he may be the most technically savvy fighter to come along in years.
Colombian veteran Miguel Marriaga (25-2, 21 KOs) is next in line for a close-up view of the unparalleled ring skills of Lomachenko. The pair will vie for the Ukrainian star’s 130-pound title on Saturday night on ESPN (10 p.m. ET) at L.A. Live’s Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Lomachenko’s lofty goal is to become No. 1 pound-for-pound in the world, and he knows to get there he needs to fight and beat the best. Marriaga is good but nowhere near Lomachenko’s caliber. In fact he is moving up from featherweight for this fight and coming off a loss to undefeated featherweight champ Oscar Valdez, in which Marriaga was dropped in the 10th round of their title fight. It was not a close fight.
“The biggest thing for me is I want to fight top, top fighters in the weight class that I am now fighting in,” Lomachenko said during a recent call with reporters. “That is my biggest goal. Then maybe it is different weight classes. I want to be in the history book of boxing – I want my name to be mentioned when people talk about the history of boxing. Most important for me is to fight the best – where the fight means something – fans want it, people want to see it. I want to be on top of the list.”
Generally, technically superior fighters are not the most fan-friendly. But Lomachenko’s last five fights ended in stoppages and entertained fans with the combination of ring skills and power. His footwork might be unparalleled in the sport. That comes from his father and trainer, Anatoly, the former Ukraine national coach who made his son take ballet before he ever stepped in the ring, to develop that footwork. Vasyl even has a mental conditioning coach.
Lomachenko and his promoter, Top Rank, figured this ESPN bout would be a rematch with Salido to avenge Lomachenko’s only loss. But according to Lomachenko’s manager, Egis Klimas, Salido dragged his feet and the bout was made last minute with Marriaga.
“Vasyl is a fighter. He is not choosing opponents and he is not trying to avoid anybody or afraid to step in the ring against anybody,” Klimas said in explaining the Salido fail. “So beggars cannot be choosers.”
If Lomachenko decides to move up to lightweight, he could likely land a big title fight against undefeated lightweight champion Mikey Garcia, a fellow top-10 pound-for-pounder who is coming off an impressive showing in a unanimous decision super lightweight victory against Adrien Broner last weekend. Garcia’s trainer and brother, Robert, called out Lomachenko to fight his brother in November.
Yet Top Rank President Todd DuBoef threw shade on such a matchup during the recent conference call. It should be noted that Garcia is a former Top Rank fighter who sat out for 2 1/2 years in a legal contract dispute before obtaining his release from the company last year.
“That is complete nonsense. Mikey Garcia turned down Yuriorkis Gamboa. He turned down Gamboa which would have made him something, so don’t tell me he is striving to fight the best out there,” DuBoef said.
“Listen, if Mikey Garcia is interested in the fight, have his guys call us. We are in. Any time. I mean the guy leaves us then says the three fighters I want to fight are (Manny) Pacquiao, (Terence) Crawford and Lomachenko (all Top Rank fighters). Why would you leave? You went on strike for two years. I hate to call it how it is guys.”
Lomachenko, though, is in the business of collecting title belts, and one he is eying is the familiar green WBC super featherweight belt currently owned by Miguel Berchelt, the tough Mexican who essentially came out of nowhere to defeat back-to-back Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura, both former holders of the WBC belt.
“I really would like to fight Miguel Berchelt to unify the titles and I would like to (add) one more belt to my collection,” said Lomachenko.
As for an eventual, but no longer inevitable rematch with the 36-year-old Salido (44-13-4, 31 KOs), Lomachenko is still interested, but maybe not for long. “Yes, I would like to fight Salido but probably within a one-year period," he said. "If it is longer than that I am not going to be interested in fighting him because that bout wouldn’t mean anything. But I would like to get back in the ring with him to see how much better I can be in the second bout.”