https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfTZ7xXAm7k
By Gerardo Granados: Yesterday I read a couple of interesting articles related to Lomachenko boxing paint artist goal, which made me wonder if the boxing purists like Jose Eduardo Sanchez would include us in the debate or if they would claim to have the only valid opinion on the subject.
If Vasyl aims to become a boxing artist like Floyd Mayweather Jr he could struggle as Guillermo Rigondeaux, but if Lomachenko does understand the business side of “prize fighting” then in deed he could become pleasure to watch.
For some boxing purist, to whom I will refer to as hard line purist the rest of fight fans even more the savage blood thirsty fight fans like us don’t have a clue about the sweet science. Maybe they are correct or perhaps they don’t understand that the goal of prize fighting is different, and I will quote Cus D´Amato – “Professional fighter got to learn how to hit and not get hit and at the same time be exciting”.
Someone said that nobody can serve two masters, but is it possible for a boxer to please the boxing purists and also to please the crowd? I think it is possible and the current number one pound for pound boxer Roman Gonzalez is an example of it.
To me the boxing lesson that Floyd Mayweather Jr gave to an “injured” Manny Pacquiao was a boxing work of art. Other artists like Wladimir Klitschko have dominated their craft up to the elite level and Guillermo Rigondeaux might be a surrealist painter but with the exception of Money pure boxers aren’t liked by the vast majority of fight fans.
The beauty of the perfectly executed left hook to the liver and the pain it causes cannot be described with poetry. The excitement that an epic battle brings can only be compared to a personal fight experience.
I would never expect Lomachenko to perform like Arturo Gatti or to be as eccentric as Ricardo Mayorga was and even less I would dare to ask him to not take advantage of his boxing skills. But instead I would only demand of him to please the crowd by always going for the kill and not do what Erislandy Lara did against Delvin Rodriguez.
A boxing artist can be like a Jazz artist and we all know the quote from Big George Foreman who once said that boxing was like Jazz and the better it was the less people would appreciate it.
I want to ask to the readers if the Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier – Thrilla in Manila or the Julio Cesar Chavez vs Meldrick Taylor – Lightning vs Thunder can be catalogued as superb works of art. Maybe there is no better artistic display than the heart that the lion king will show when everybody expect him to lose but instead pulls himself off the canvas to pull the upset.
Perhaps not even the boxing purist can argue against the Riddick Bowe versus Evender Holyfield trilogy to have been as unforgettable as the Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez tetralogy; but are pure boxing displays that hard to forget?
If Vasyl Lomachenko understands what the fight fans want to see and pay for, then he could bring the excitement into the ring along with his boxing skills.
Personally I don’t want to see a pure boxing exhibition but instead all I want to see is boxers do what Sergey Kovalev does inside the ring, because for me that’s real boxing art in motion. I do believe Lomachenko can become a genuine artist, but does the reader agree?
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