By Gav Duthie: I apologize in advance for being the voice of boredom but I think Vasyl Lomachenko 2-1 (1) should relinquish his recently acquired WBO Featherweight title and take a short break from fighting at the top level. There is no doubt Saturday night was an amazing achievement from the Ukranian amateur sensation who equaled Thai boxer Saensak Muangsurin’s record of winning a world title after only 3 fights. However, after doing a bit of research into Muangsurin and some of the other early achievers very few of them go on to have really successful careers.
That combined with the fact that Loma’s last two fight have went to a split decision I fear that Lomachenko’s career could be over before it begins. Even though his win was well deserved I felt there were a lot of weaknesses in his game that could be rectified with some more professional experience. He seems to struggle on the back foot when under pressure, he can be countered quite easily, his arms are often low without the speed to justify this.
Surprisingly after 2x 12 round fights he does seem to have the stamina that amateurs often don’t and his body shots are fantastic despite that not being a quality renowned with amateurs. Basically what I mean is he is good but not well rounded enough yet and risks another loss that he could struggle to come back from.
Quickest champions list
Saensak Muangsurin 14-6 (11) light welterweight
(3 fights)
Veeraphol Sahaprom 66-4-2 (46) bantamweight
(4 fights)
Paul Weir 14-6 (4) minimum weight, light flyweight
(6 fights, then 10 fights)
Jeff Fenech 29-3-1 (21) bantamweight
(7 fights) (Fenech joint on 7 with two others)
Leon Spinks 26-17-3 (14) heavyweight
(8 fights)
I’m not one of those guys who thinks he should have a 35-0 record fighting bums from Ukraine but he could certainly benefit from more experience against fighters ranked between 15 and 30. To pick out a couple of examples from the above list Paul Weir a fellow Scottish compatriot of mine actually features in the top ten twice as he had won two world titles at different weights within ten fights. Despite this he retires pretty much unheard of with a record of 14-6 (4). Look at Leon Spinks who became an overnight celebrity when he shocked the world by beating a massively in decline Mohammed Ali for the title in his 8th fight. After this Leon went on to lose 17 of his 46 bout total.
I’m not saying this would happen to Lomachenko but if he were to fight the likes of Nonito Donaire or Guillermo Rigondeaux in his next bout and lose again where would he go from there? He is only 26 years old its not like the 32 year old Rigondeaux who needs to maximize his talents before its too late.
Main Competition
Featherweight
Nonito Donaire 33-2 (21)
Jhonny Gonzalez 56-8 (47)
Abner Mares 26-1-1 (14)
Evgeny Gradovich 19-0 (9)
Simpiwe Vetyeka 26-3 (16)
Super Bantamweight
Guillermo Rigondeaux 13-0 (8)
Leo Santa Cruz 27-0-1 (15)
I’m not saying that Vasyl doesn’t have the ability to beat some if not all of these opponents but if he dives in head first now I think he is making a mistake. He still has time on his side and I think he could benefit from four or five fights against tough but beatable second level opponents before he steps up again to battle one of the big boys. However knowing the money making machine that Bob Arum is I feel he will likely ruin the career of the talented Lomachenko.
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