Numbers don’t always tell the whole story, but sometimes, they distort it.
Vasiliy Lomachenko announced his retirement from boxing at the age of 37. He leaves the sport as a three-division world champion with a professional record of 18-3 (12 KOs).As the years go by, a new wave of boxing fans will not have witnessed the Ukrainian’s skill in the ring. Instead, they will look at his record and wonder how a boxer with three losses in just 21 fights can be considered great. Especially in an era where greatness is often defined by maintaining an undefeated record, something that Floyd Mayweather made famous by retiring with a 50-0 record.
But Lomachenko was a different kind of athlete, whose path through professional boxing after a remarkable amateur career, where he won two Olympic gold medals and amassed an extraordinary record of 396-1, was opposite to most boxing careers. Instead of spending the first part of his professional career facing unknown opponents, Lomachenko dove headfirst into the biggest challenges and was defined by overcoming adversity.
In his second professional fight, less than five months after his debut, Lomachenko faced WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido in March 2014. Lomachenko sought to make history by attempting to break the record by becoming a world champion in his second fight. However, Salido had other plans. He didn’t make weight by 2 pounds and used his size advantage, along with some dirty tactics, to outpoint Lomachenko by split decision.Undeterred, Lomachenko would adapt to the professional style and fulfilled his second attempt to become a world champion by defeating the undefeated Gary Russell Jr. by majority decision in June 2014 to claim the vacant WBO featherweight title, joining Saensak Muangsurin as the only boxers to become champions in their third professional fight.
But the best was yet to come.
Lomachenko successfully defended the title three times before moving up to junior lightweight, where he stopped WBO champion Roman Martinez in five rounds in June 2016 to become the fastest boxer to win world titles in two different weight classes (seven fights). After that, we were presented with “No Mas-Chenko”.
In his next four fights, against Nicholas Walters (26-0-1), Jason Sosa (20-1-4), Miguel Marriaga (25-2), and Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0), Lomachenko forced each of his opponents to quit in the corner between rounds. With his excellent footwork, pinpoint accuracy, and extraordinary athleticism, Lomachenko was virtually untouchable during this remarkable run that cemented him as a regular in the pound-for-pound rankings. Against arguably the other best amateur boxer of this generation, his fellow two-time Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux, Lomachenko easily dismantled him, allowing Rigondeaux to land only 8% of his total punches in a technical knockout victory in the sixth round.
It would take an average boxer a full career to achieve what Lomachenko did in just 11 professional fights.And it wasn’t finished yet.
Although he was widely considered a small junior lightweight, Lomachenko ventured to lightweight for his next challenge, challenging WBA champion Jorge Linares in May 2018. Although he was knocked down in the sixth round, Lomachenko stopped Linares in the tenth round with a body shot to become the fastest boxer to win world titles in three different weight classes (12 fights), shattering the previous record of 20 fights held by Jeff Fenech.
With his pound-for-pound status consolidated, Lomachenko unified titles with victories over Jose Pedraza and Luke Campbell, but he couldn’t become undisputed champion when he fell short against IBF champion Teofimo Lopez. After winning his next three fights, Lomachenko again fell short in his attempt to unify the four major lightweight belts when he lost a highly controversial decision to Devin Haney. Both defeats, against Haney and Lopez, were against naturally bigger and younger opponents.
Before retiring, Lomachenko demolished former undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. in May 2024 with a technical knockout in the eleventh round in his opponent’s backyard, in Perth, Australia. At 36 years old, Lomachenko was unsure of his next move. Between his advanced age and his longing to be in his home in Ukraine, Lomachenko finally decided that his boxing career was over.
Although Lomachenko did not retire with a perfect record, his appetite for making history and taking on the biggest challenges from the moment he turned professional is the reason he will enter the International Boxing Hall of Fame in three years. For most boxers, 21 fights are still part of the building phase.
With the same number of fights, Canelo Alvarez was a virtual unknown who still fought exclusively in Mexico. Terence Crawford had not yet won a major world title after his first 21 fights. Even Mayweather, who is recognized as the best boxer of this generation, had not achieved what Lomachenko did in 21 fights. Lomachenko is the perfect example of the need to witness greatness in real time to fully understand it, and not to rely solely on numbers and records to tell a story.
