By Chris Williams: Vasiliy Lomachenko commented this week on former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk’s 10th round knockout loss to IBF champion Artur Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs), and he’s not giving the Russian fighter too much credit for his victory.
Lomachenko views the loss for Gvozdyk due to shortcomings in his conditioning, because he thinks he could have held early lead if his stamina was better. Fans see it differently.
They witnessed Beterbiev putting on a body punching clinic that ultimately was too much for Gvozdyk to handle. The body work that Beterbiev put in the second half of the fight drained Gvozdyk like a battery. Although Gvozdyk seemed physically tired, the body shots were the catalyst in making that happen.
Last month, the two-time Olympian Beterbiev defeated the previously unbeaten Gvozdyk (17-1, 14 KOs) in an exciting fight on October 18 Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia.
Lomachenko expected different results
“My impressions aren’t, of course, very positive, because everyone expected a different outcome,” said Lomachenko to Lomachenko TV about the Beterbiev vs. Gvozdyk fight. “We all came to support Sanya. And we don’t care, of course, if he wins or loses. We will always support him and be by his side, but I expected a different result.
Lomachenko wasn’t happy to see his fellow countryman Gvozdyk lose for the first time in his career. Lomachenko notes that people “EVERYONE” expected Gvozdyk to win the fight. He firmly believes Gvozdyk would have won if he had maintained the pace that he’d set out in the first six rounds.
Gvozdyk was at his best in rounds 1-6
In the first half of the fight, Gvozdyk was at his best, boxing, moving and taking advantage of his speed. Things went downhill for Gvozdyk in the second half of the contest, as Beterbiev started touching him to the body. He found out quickly that Gvozdyk couldn’t handle the body shots. Beterbiev later commented that he wished he’d started throwing body shots earlier in the fight, because it would have made it easier.
To most boxing fans, they witnessed Beterbiev using an impressive body attack and inside game to wear Gvozdyk down until knocking him out in the 10th. Lomachenko doesn’t see it that way. He feels that Gvozdyk would have won the fight if his conditioning had been better.
The judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage in the 10th round as follows:
- 87-84 – Gvozdyk
- 86-85 – Gvozdyk
- 8783 – Beterbiev
Gvozdyk’s physical conditioning was exposed
“All our guys expected a different result, but it’s boxing,” said Lomachenko. “Probably the question here is to Sasha himself and to his team. It wasn’t that Beterbiev won. It was that Sasha lost. Yes, I think Sasha can do better.
“Again, you know, along the fight, the way he was boxing, if he had just held it out for the whole 12 rounds at that speed, he wouldn have won the fight. But you saw how it turned out. It was a clear shortcoming – his physical conditioning,” said Lomachenko.
Loma thinks that Gvozdyk can do better, and maybe he can. Who knows? But this might be something that he can’t change. In a rematch with Beterbiev, you can bet that the Russian fighter will be targeting Gvozdyk’s body from round one, and not waiting. It’ll be more difficult for Gvozdyk to take Beterbiev’s body shots in the rematch if he starts earlier, and we could see a faster knockout.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Gvozdyk can come back from this loss, because it was a tough one. You can bet that anyone that faces Gvozdyk from this point on will be attacking his midsection, and trying to duplicate Beterbiev’s efforts.
The question is will Gvozdyk turn out like Sergey Kovalev? The former light heavyweight champion Kovalev saw his career go downhill when Andre Ward exposed his inability to take it downstairs. If Gvozdyk has the same problem, then his career could soon be over as a major player.