Vasiliy Lomachenko was born on February 17th, 1988 in Bilhorod-Dnistrovs’kyi, Ukraine. The 33 year-old boxer currently has a professional boxing record of 16-2.
Lomachenko is among the most successful amateur boxers of all time, with a record of 396 wins and 1 loss. His superb hand speed, timing, athleticism, accuracy, creativity, defence and footwork puts him in a class almost of his own.
He is a former World Champion in three weight classes including WBO Featherweight, WBO Junior Lightweight, and the unified WBA, WBC, and WBO Lightweight title. The Ring, ranks him as the second best lightweight in the world.
With 2 gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics, he was the quickest boxer to hold two titles in two different weight classes after just 7 professional fights.
Lomachenko has tested himself against various fighters, and despite competing against bigger and stronger opponents, Lomachenko proves that technique is the key to success.
Lomachenko who has accumulated a few nicknames over the years (“Hi-Tech Loma”, “The Matrix” and “No Mas-Chenko”) uses his amazing footwork, accuracy, and speed to dazzle his opponents, he’s a technical boxer who’s been applauded by boxing pundits the world over.
He’s a southpaw fighter, despite being right-handed. The choice to have his power hand as his jab, makes him an awkward boxer to face.
His professional career started in 2013, but his career path into boxing started when he was a child. His father, Anatoly, wanted his son to be one the best boxers in the world and used an unorthodox approach to achieve this. He sent his son to traditional Ukrainian dance classes and gymnastics before being allowed step into the ring.
Lomachenko continues to use alternative methods of training to give him an edge in his fights. From math exercises, and balance drills to underwater breathing exercises, Lomachenko believes these strategies help him develop greater levels of awareness and leverage that in turn, translate into heightened boxing skill.
Okay, so now that you have some context behind Lomachenko’s story, let’s take a look at his most technical, blistering, and dominating manoeuvres as we breakdown Vasiliy Lomachenko’s Top 5 Boxing Matches! (In descending order)
5. Vs. Masayoshi Nakatani (June 26, 2021)
This fight was important for Lomachenko’s confidence. After being beaten by Teófimo López, Lomachenko needed to find his rhythm again. Nakatani, a tall fighter stood at 5′ 11″ with a greater reach advantage – could Loma get on the inside to beat him?
In round 1, Loma attempts to break through Nakatani’s long reach. It’s common for opposing southpaw and orthodox fighters to accidentally headbutt, as Nakatani takes some damage to his eye with a cut appearing on Loma’s forehead towards the end of the first round.
In round 2, Loma begins to come into his stride as he lands various types of punches.
In rounds 3 and 4, we see Loma load up the power punches with Nakatani still trying to keep him at a distance.
In the middle of round 5, Loma throws a flurry of punches, which sends Nakatani to the canvas for the count. Nakatani gets back up, but the volume of punches is overwhelming with Loma landing 34 and Nakatani only landing 13 in the last 5 rounds.
For the next three rounds, Loma continues to dominate, landing a range of shots from different angles slowly breaking and exhausting Nakatani’s energy reserves.
Finally, in round 9, after having taken a significant amount of damage from the beginning of the fight, Nakatani looks defeated.
Loma throws a variety of hooks, which makes Nakatani take the knee. The referee calls off the fight, seeing very little offense from Nakatani to allow him to continue. This gave Loma the 9th round win via technical knockout.
4. Vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux (Dec. 9, 2017)
Rigondeaux, a Cuban boxer had an impressive amateur record of 374 – 12, and came into this fight undefeated in his last 18 fights. Most people expected this fight to be a close match up.
A chess match then for both technical fighters, Loma tests his jab with some success in the first round. Rigo makes multiple desperate attempts to hold Loma in place, as Loma evades all Rigo’s attacks for the duration of round 2.
Rigo, since the beginning of the fight, had defended Loma’s punches by crouching, which he continued to do during the fight.
Loma finds more success with uppercuts to counter Rigo’s defensive stance in the third and fourth rounds.
It gets heated towards the end of round 5, as Rigo holds on and aggressively pulls at Loma’s arm after the bell. This causes Loma to throw a reactionary punch, way after the round had ended.
Exasperated about how the fight had gone, Rigo at the beginning of round 7 informs his corner that he has a hand injury, a possible excuse to forfeit. Rigo’s corner calls off the fight for a win by RTD (corner retirement / corner stoppage). Loma thus broke Rigondeaux’s 18-0 record by RTD.
After the bout, Rigo praised Lomachenko, saying he was “very technical, very quick, and very explosive.”
3. Vs. Anthony Crolla (April 12, 2019)
During rounds 1 and 2, Loma lands a mix of body and head shots. Crolla, struggling with Loma’s speed, has problems with actually landing his punches.
From the start of round 3, Loma totally dominates. With a flurry of punches, the referee intervenes for a technical knockdown. This confuses both fighters, as Loma begins to celebrate his victory, but the fight is made to continue.
Loma knows however, that it’s still the end and hunts for the finish in the fourth round. He lands a straight, and a right hook which sends Crolla to the canvas for a big, unequivocal, 4th round knockout win.
2. Vs. Roman Martinez (June 11, 2016)
This fight was held at Madison Square Garden for the WBO Junior Lightweight title.
In round 1, Loma finds some success backing Roman into the corner with body punch shots. Still finding his range, he measures Roman’s movements.
Loma starts round 2 strong with crisp shots to Roman’s head. Loma circles around Roman multiple times with his footwork, catching him from multiple angles.
Loma continues to duck, and evade whilst effectively counter-punching. He rocks Roman right before the bell rings, to end round 3.
In round 4, Loma loads up straight punches which land square on Roman’s chin.
Loma lands a lot of power punches at the start of round 5, which signalled the beginning of the end. That end came as Loma threw an uppercut and a tight right hook, knocking Roman out for the finish.
Winning this title made Lomachenko the fastest boxer to win two world titles in different weight classes.
1. Vs. Jorge Linares (May 12, 2018)
Linares, with a reputation for being a powerful, and highly technical puncher, ensured this match wasn’t going to be a walk in the park by any stretch. There’s a noticeable size difference, as Loma comes in the smaller man.
I’ve put this finish in at number 1, because of how competitive this fight was. Both fighters showed true grit in this fight, but even more so, Lomachenko proved again his elite status in the world of boxing.
In round 1, both fighters test their jabs and straights, measuring and analyzing each other’s movements.
For the following three rounds, we see both fighters find success, with Loma landing some hard body shots, but still it’s equal, score wise up to this point.
Round 5 proved to be a big one for Loma, as he had begun to dominate it with some heavy shots.
However, the tables turned quickly in round 6, as Loma was dropped by a straight punch from Linares. Loma bounces straight back up after being dropped, realizing that this fight won’t be so easy.
Linares, by now appears very confident and lands powerful blows on Loma in round 7.
Loma manages to regain his confidence and dominates rounds 8 and 9, showing resilience and a ‘do or die’ willingness to win.
Round 10 starts off well for Linares, as he lands heavy shots. Loma soon lands his own flurry of shots, with a sneaky shot to the liver which drops Linares instantly to the mat in agony.
The referee waves off the fight, as Linares shows no ability to continue. This earned Loma the victory and the WBO Super Lightweight title.
