The man that Vasiliy Lomachenko made disappear does not want to be found.
He shared seven rounds with Lomachenko so head-scratching and perplexing, so befuddling and condescending, that he quit inside the ring then quit boxing forever.
Nicholas Walters was never seen again.
Vasiliy Lomachenko fights Richard Commey in the early hours of Sunday morning, live on Sky Sports
Tracking down the man who vanished after his fight with Lomachenko is a thankless and bizarre journey.
First there was the reggae DJ. Walters was his mate, he insisted. He could facilitate a conversation, he said. Nothing came of it.
Then there was somebody who passed over Walters’ phone number. One, twice, three times… until five separate numbers arrived. None were answered.
Then in early-November, sadly, it emerged that his long-time manager Jacques Deschamps had died.
Walters can be tracked to Panama, across the Caribbean sea from his home country of Jamaica. His boxing career was built out of Panama, and it is back there he has retreated after turning his back on boxing.
“I don’t know,” Lomachenko shrugs when asked by Sky Sports about his lost rival.
“I never heard about his life after this fight. Never.”
Walters was viewed as a serious and stringent test of Lomachenko’s abilities when they fought five years ago.
He was a former world featherweight champion known as ‘the Axe Man’ because of his ferocious power.
His standout result was, and will likely always remain, the impressive feat of stopping the four-weight champion Nonito Donaire in six rounds. Donaire has gone the distance with Naoya Inoue, Carl Frampton and Guillero Rigondeaux but found Walters’s power too much to handle.
“I have never seen a featherweight with as much power as Walters,” said Top Rank’s Bob Arum, his co-promoter, at the time. “I’ve seen featherweights with a lot of power but nothing with the concussive power this kid has.”
The brilliant Lomachenko was only seven fights into his pro career but was already a two-weight world champion.
Their collision was Lomachenko’s second fight at super-featherweight, and Walters’ first.
There was genuine anticipation for Walters’ power-punching style to be a major issue for Lomachenko’s trademark movement.
“I remember this story,” Lomachenko smiles now. “Before the fight people said: ‘He has big power’.
“It was 50-50 before the fight. Nobody knew who would win.
“But if you have only power, it’s not enough to win.”
Walters was never knocked to the canvas against Lomachenko.
He was never caught with a particular shot which clearly hurt him.
What happened was far more soul-destroying.
“Maybe he wasn’t ready for it,” Lomachenko wonders. “Because he couldn’t throw a lot of big punches at me.
“He always missed.
“After this, he understood that he didn’t have a chance.”
After seven rounds which sapped at Walters’ confidence and belief, he was not so much physically damaged as he was emotionally spent.
He sat on his stool, briefly muttered to his corner, and the fight was waved off moments later.
Walters committed boxing’s cardinal sin. He quit.
“In the beginning he said he was a gladiator, he was going to do this, he was going to do that,” Lomachenko said after the fight.
“In the end, he didn’t show up. He just quit.”
The humbling of Walters on that night on 2016 was so profound that he has never returned to the boxing ring.
He had seen the top of the mountain in Lomachenko’s outrageous skills, and realised he no longer had the hunger or desire to climb.
“It was one of the best fights of my career,” Lomachenko reflects now.
Perhaps the writing had already been on the wall for Walters.
He had been stripped of his world titles on the scales after failing to make weight for a defence of the belt.
He then seemingly battered Jason Sosa only for the judges’ to surprisingly rule it a draw. He said at the time: “I’m in total shock. I just can’t believe it.”
His fight with Lomachenko came after initial negotiations fell flat.
If Walters’ passion for boxing had already begun to wane before he stepped foot in the ring with Lomachenko, he was surely nudged over the edge by an all-time great at the peak of the powers.
The sensational Ukrainian was dubbed ‘No Mas Chenko’ after the famous line Roberto Duran gave (“no more”) to signal the end of his fight with ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard because he made three consecutive opponents quit.
Walters, Sosa and Miguel Marriaga all ended their fights with Lomachenko in between rounds in a state of confusion and awe.
It is an unprecedented run of results.
As for Walters now?
The President of the Jamaica Boxing Board, Stephen Jones, claimed he was set for a comeback before the Covid-19 pandemic scuppered it. Jones was also unavailable to comment when asked by Sky Sports.
While Walters retreats more and more into the shadows, Lomachenko returns to the spotlight in the early hours of Sunday morning, live on Sky Sports.
He fights Richard Commey knowing that an emphatic victory could propel him above divisional rivals Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia into the sights of George Kambosos Jr, who holds every major belt.
Anything similar to the night he made a man disappear from boxing altogether would do the job.
