Vasiliy Lomachenko announces retirement from boxing

New York Times

2 days ago

Vasiliy Lomachenko has announced his retirement from boxing at the age of 37, walking away as a three-weight world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist (2008 and 2012).
His last fight came a year ago, in May 2024 when he stopped Australia's George Kambosos Jr in the 11th round, taking him to a professional record of 18-3 — Orlando Salido, Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney subjecting him to defeats.
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In an Instagram video posted on Thursday afternoon, the Ukrainian said: 'I'm grateful for every victory and defeat inside the ring and outside the ring. I'm thankful that as my career comes to an end, I've gained clarity about the direction a person must take in order to achieve true victory, not just in the ring.'
Lomachenko will be remembered as one of the sport's greatest fighters, amassing an incredible amateur record of 396-1 before entering the professional ranks and winning the WBO world featherweight title in just his third fight when he beat Gary Russell Jr. via majority decision in June 2014. Two years later, he added the WBO junior lightweight title with victory over Roman Martinez and in 2018, he stopped tough Venezuelan Jorge Linares to secure The Ring and WBA lightweight belts.
Renowned for his exquisite footwork, which combined with his lightning-quick hands often left opponents facing shots from angles they did not know existed, Lomachenko was also notoriously hard to hit, earning him nicknames including The Matrix and Hi-Tech. Between November 2016 and December 2017, he went on a run of making four consecutive opponents — Nicholas Walters, Jason Sosa, Miguel Marriaga and Guillermo Rigondeaux — quit, either by their own volition or their corner throwing in the towel. And this in a sport where it feels like 'quitting' is sometimes treated with more disdain than doping.
In his farewell Instagram post, Lomachenko thanked his parents, and particularly his father Anatoly, whose face he has tattooed across his torso. It was Anatoly, a boxing coach, who trained his young son in the art of pugilism from the age of four. At nine, 'Papachenko' decided his young son should swap his boxing boots for dancing shoes and for the next four years, Lomachenko perfected the art of traditional Ukrainian dancing. His exceptional balance and fast feet are often attributed to this period and while Lomachenko has agreed that dancing was part of that, he also attributes his skills to doing many other sports (gymnastics, basketball, football and tennis included), too. The pair developed training methods designed to forge Lomachenko's mental strength and sharpness, including training him to hold his breath for long periods underwater (his record is four minutes 20 seconds) and challenging him with complex mental arithmetic problems.
Inside the ring, those mental and physical skills elevated him to a level far above many of his peers and one that few will ever be able to replicate in the same glorious, captivating manner as Lomachenko did throughout his career.