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Mike CoppingerESPN
Vasiliy Lomachenko was on the brink of the winning claim he was looking for on Saturday, the kind of performance that could land him a shot at the undisputed lightweight championship.
After beating Richard Commey in the seventh round in their lightweight bout at Madison Square Garden, New York, Lomachenko didn’t finish right away. He begs his enemies to stop the contest.
Maneuvering finally made Lomachenko secure a TKO victory, and instead he settled for a decisive victory in which he flew down the ramp.
Yes, Lomachenko prevailed. He’s been in classic style, using clever angles, kicks and footwork to slide around Commey and wow his former homeowner. But was it the kind of explosive victory that had fans screaming over the clash with George Kambosos Jr. for all four lightweight titles?
“I need this chance [for the undisputed title]”, said Lomachenko, ESPN’s £8 boxer. I will go wherever I need to go to fight [Kambosos]. … I need all four belts. “
Instead, Lomachenko is likely to find himself scrambling together in a pile with Devin Haney, Gervonta “The Tank” Davis and possibly even Ryan Garcia for a crack at the new lightweight king. Between Haney, Tank, and Lomachenko, who all competed against each other over the course of eight days, it’s hard to solidify the prominence between them.
Lomachenko has experienced the most defeatist defeat, but he is said to face the mildest opposition of the bunch. (Isaac Cruz was untested, untalented, and pushed Davis to the brink.)
Kambosos, 28, has insisted that whoever he defends his championship next, the venue must be his Australian nation, where he received a hero’s welcome earlier this week.
The long flight home to Sydney comes after the Kambosos defeated Teofimo Lopez two weeks ago to unify the belts, followed by a whirlwind tour of reconnaissance missions. First, he was front-runner in Haney’s decisive win over Joseph “JoJo” Diaz a week later. The next day, he was in Los Angeles for Davis’s tougher-than-expected win over Cruz.
All of the top lightweight athletes would certainly be delighted at the Kambosos opportunity, but the decision rests with the champions. He promised to choose the lightweight he was most impressed with, and now Lomachenko has a convincing case.
Davis and Garcia are the biggest lightweight attractions in the state, but without a doubt, Lomachenko is recognized worldwide. The boisterous “Loma” chants that began before the opening bell on Saturday were further proof that his star power and commercial appeal could help Lomachenko and Top Rank entice the Kambosos with a financial package. main larger. Kambosos is a freelance cyber agent but was promoted by Lou DiBella, who just teamed up with Bob Arum for the Commey fight and has a history of working with the Top Rated.
Whatever Lomachenko does next, he won’t be immediately interested in the match against 130-pound champion Shakur Stevenson that Arum has suggested.
“I have a goal, I have a dream: to be undisputed champion in lightweight,” said Lomachenko. “So I stayed at 135 and got on with my career.”
Stevenson made a different decision than Lomachenko at the age of 33.
Stevenson told ESPN: “If Lomachenko were to play Kambosos next week, nine out of 10 people would choose Lomachenko to fight Kambosos… “But if he were to play me, some people might pick him to win, Some people will choose me to win.It’s like a 50-50 fight.
“He’s had a chance for all the belts. At this point in his career, I think you should be looking for the big money matches, making the most money possible because he’s not going to play. boxing forever.”
Lomachenko said on Thursday that losing to Lopez gave him new impetus in boxing. The two-time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist admits he believes he can beat Lopez with “one arm”, a reference to the torn crank cuff he wore when he entered the ring.
With his shoulder repaired surgically and feeling 100% healthy, Lomachenko looks like his old self during the devastating Masayoshi Nakatani fight back in June. Without the TKO, Lomachenko looks on par with Commey, a good fighter. much more than Nakatani.
Lomachenko entered the match against Lopez as the world’s best 135-pound athlete. His speed, precision accuracy and uncanny boxing skills have lifted him to the top of the weight list. After Lopez’s defeat, and now two convincing wins, he is once again considered the most talented lightweight in boxing. But he is still not a champion. After another impressive win, he could find himself in decoy position in a hit to Kambosos and, more importantly, all the belts Aussie holds.
With four light battles gathered in 15 days, we rarely got a better chance to survey the landscape. At this point, after his strong performance against Commey, it’s hard to see anyone going past Lomachenko.
We see the Kambosos slip by Lopez, and Haney gets checked in late by Diaz. Davis was the least impressive of the group against the much worse Cruz. Of course, it’s never that simple. Kambosos is moving ahead in the competition and Haney is also battling the best opponent of his career. Davis fought with his injured left hand for most of the battle.
Lomachenko, too, emerged unscathed. He absorbed a lot of strong body shots from Commey and a few good counter-attacks to the face. But in the end, he passed Commey 248 to 73.
No other lightweight that has competed during this time period can boast such dominance. Now, it is up to the Top Rank and Lomachenko’s manager, Egis Klimas, will deliver to the gladiator. And if it’s not Kambosos, there are still plenty of other compelling battles for Lomachenko. There’s a fight with Stevenson that he doesn’t seem interested in right now, but without the Kambosos fight, it could suddenly become very appealing to him.
Clashes with Haney, Garcia and Davis are among the biggest that can happen in the sport. A win against one of those three would certainly bring him one step closer to his ultimate goal of winning the undisputed championship. And as Stevenson suggests, those matches will also make him a lot of money.
