By: Hans Themistode
Vasiliy Lomachenko has spent most of his life working and honing his boxing craft. As a result, the Ukrainian is the proud owner of twin Olympic gold medals, numerous titles as a professional, and worldwide recognition as one of the best fighters on the planet.
While the pound-for-pound star has ultimately received fame and fortune as a result, he isn’t interested in the former. Although the former lightweight unified titlist has sat back and watched as fellow 135 pounders such as Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia and WBC belt holder Devin Haney continue to amass an enormous following, Lomachenko isn’t intrigued in pursuing their blueprint.
“I don’t want to play this game with their rules,” said Lomachenko recently. “I don’t want to be famous, I just want to be the best in boxing. I don’t want to change myself.”
Even with Lomachenko ducking for cover as the spotlight heads in his direction, he often finds himself the center of attention. Following title reigns at both 126 and 130 pounds, Lomachenko ran through the lightweight competition. Following his victory over Luke Campbell in 2019, Lomachenko was only one belt away from becoming an undisputed world champion.
His dreams, ultimately, failed to come to fruition as Teofimo Lopez both outboxed and outmuscled him during their October 17th, 2020 showdown. Since then, Lomachenko has attempted to push his name near the front of the line to earn another world title opportunity.
In June of 2021, the skilled Ukrainian became the first man to stop highly ranked contender Masayoshi Nakatani. Six months later, Lomachenko closed the year strong, winning a lopsided decision against former belt holder Richard Commey.
Despite his shoulders being devoid of any world title gold, Lomachenko has heard his name on the lips of current champions Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jr. But, regardless of the so-called interest, Lomachenko is bemused by the lack of actual fight negotiations taking place.
“Right now, nobody wants to sign a contract for a fight with me.”