Vasiliy Lomachenko is holding court at a roundtable, fielding reporters’ questions just like he handles punches in the center of the ring — slipping some, firing back at others with “Hi-Tech” efficiency.
As the roundtable gradually grows more stark, the WBA lightweight champion is now only joined by his manager, Egis Klimas, who doubles as his interpreter when needed. About to rise, Lomachenko suddenly feels whiffs of air coming from above. The Ukrainian boxer peers up to see none other than Terence Crawford, WBO welterweight champion and his Top Rank promotion mate, shadowboxing.
MORE: Join DAZN and watch Alvarez-Fielding Dec. 15
The two champs flashed huge grins, before embracing. Right then and there at the posh Club Room of Madison Square Garden on Thursday stood arguably boxing’s pound-for-pound best two fighters.Some would say that it’s Crawford who wears the crown for the way he seems to relish in punishing his opponents, beating them to a pulp. Others would say it’s Lomachenko for the way he dissects and demoralizes fighters, making four straight quit from November 2016 through December 2017, before scoring a 10th-round TKO victory over Jorge Linares in May to become the quickest three-division champion in boxing. Both Crawford and Lomachenko snatch souls in the ring. So, when it comes to declaring the pound-for-pound best, it may very well be a toss-up between these two, with one’s preference of fighting styles as the only push.
But does it really matter if Crawford is regarded as the pound-for-pound best and Lomachenko is No. 2 or if Lomachenko is No. 1 and Crawford is ranked second? Well, to Lomachenko it does.
“Yes, yes, I want to be pound-for-pound boxer No. 1,” Lomachenko told a pool of reporters Thursday.
What will help him take the throne?
“I need top fights and I need top fighters,” Lomachenko added bluntly.
He should be getting just that at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, when he faces WBO champion Jose Pedraza in a lightweight title unification bout, live on ESPN. If Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) is successful, he’ll shift gears towards Mikey Garcia.
For the record, Lomachenko believes Errol Spence Jr. will defeat Garcia in their March 16 bout, saying that Spence is just “too much, too big” for Garcia, who’s moving up two weight classes from 135 to 147 pounds to make the fight happen. But regardless of whether Mikey wins or loses, Lomachenko is interested in Garcia’s WBC lightweight strap to get one step closer to his ultimate benchmark.
“My goal and my dream is to unify all titles. I want to be the undisputed champion. That’s my goal,” Lomachenko told reporters without flinching. “It doesn’t matter who holds the belts — Mikey or Pedraza, it doesn’t matter. I need four all belts.”
If he’s able to satiate that hunger for more lightweight hardware, will he continue to add pounds to his 5-7 frame and ascend to the next division?
“I don’t know,” Lomachenko tells Sporting News. “It depends on my feeling, body size, muscles. If after a couple of years, I get bigger, of course I’ll move up to the next weight category. But if I stay the same size, I can’t move up because now I feel at 135, guys are bigger than me. So, now I’m focused on this weight class.”
In the immediate sense, that means defeating Pedraza (25-1, 12 KOs), who’s coming off an upset win over Ray Beltran in August and will be looking to execute another shocker Saturday night.
“[Lomachenko] is going to be the toughest fight of my career,” the Puerto Rican boxer said. “[Critics] have always underestimated me, so I’m just focused on doing the work and leaving it in God’s hands.”
When asked of the challenges that Pedraza presents, Lomachenko was minimalistic with his response.
“He has a belt … this is my challenge,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who stands in front of me. If he has a belt, it’s a challenge.”
Lomachenko is on a kind of gold rush that would make Super Mario quit trying to gather his gold coins. The Ukrainian with the icy stare steers his career with his foot mashed firmly on the gas at all times. He’s been synonymous with that high-level urgency since splashing onto the pro scene in October 2013.
Bob Arum still remembers trying to negotiate a signing bonus with Lomachenko through Klimas, only for the Ukrainian boxer to scrap those talks and inquire about a title shot instead.
“He said, ‘I want a title shot in my first fight,’” the Top Rank founder and CEO reminisces with Sporting News. “I said, ‘I can’t do it the first fight. I’ll do it the second fight.’ And, so, we shook hands and made the deal.”
Although Lomachenko lost that second fight — a March 2014 split decision to Orlando Salido — he’d bounce back to become boxing’s quickest three-division champion. And he hasn’t taken his foot off the pedal since, continuing to treat his career like there is no tomorrow. Simply put — every fight must be meaningful.
“I don’t want to be a regular fighter. I don’t want to be like all these fighters,” Lomachenko tells SN. “I want to put my name in the history. I want boxing history to remember me — my second name.”
He can add a chapter to that history Saturday night. Not to mention, another title.
*****
Goggles on, a deep breath and Vasiliy Lomachenko submerges his head, with only his hands holding onto the outside of the pool.
The stopwatch begins.
At first, he’s relaxed being under water.
But as each second ticks, that comfort turns to increasing discomfort. That discomfort turns to pressure, that pressure to agony knocking on the door of fading to an unconscious state.
He’ll tolerate that despair for as long as possible until popping his head up for air.
The was the scene of a recent documentary about the Ukrainian boxer from earlier this year, with Lomachenko’s best time reported as four minutes and 30 seconds.
Speaking to Sporting News on Thursday ahead of his press conference, Lomachenko said he performs that under-water drill roughly 15 times in a span of a few weeks during training camp to put both his mind and body through duress that he might encounter in the ring during a fight. For Lomachenko, the drill isn’t about learning your limits; it’s about punching past them.
“When you hold your breath under the water, it’s very hard — the same situation in the ring,” Lomachenko explains. “When you step into the championship rounds — 10, 11, 12th rounds — it’s very hard. It’s the same situation for your mind and your psychology.”
MORE: Join DAZN and watch Alvarez-Fielding Dec. 15
That kind of mental training helped prepare him for what he encountered during his last fight — a May 2018 bout against Jorge Linares. At some point during the bout, Lomachenko hurt his right shoulder, negating his ability to throw an effective right hook. Despite the impromptu obstacle, Lomachenko didn’t panic, using his left to throw everything from devastating uppercuts to crunching body shots en route to the 10th-round TKO. The rousing victory had Lomachenko overcoming an injury and a sixth-round knockdown to have his hand raised.
After the fight, an MRI revealed a torn labrum in his right shoulder — for which he had arthroscopic surgery on later that month to repair.
Lomachenko insists that his shoulder “feels good” entering his lightweight title unification bout against Jose Pedraza on Saturday night and he’s bound to have that assertion tested by the Puerto Rican champ.
But when you’re so comfortable being uncomfortable, you’re prepared for anything, right?
