If you?re a combat sports fan, you most likely know about Vasyl Lomachenko. You know he?s widely considered the best boxer in the world, that he?s a two time Olympic champion and you?ve probably heard that he had a 396-1 record as an amateur. That number makes for a nice, impressive and completely unverifiable soundbyte but ultimately that number and whether it is true or not doesn?t really matter. It is mostly a quick and convenient way for commentators to get across that Lomachenko was the man as an amateur before the first bell rings without having to start listing what really matters, his achievements. But we still have a good deal of time until the first bell of his fight with Luke Campbell, so let?s dive into the amateur career of Lomachenko.
Vasyl Lomachenko?s first splash came when, as a 16-year-old atomweight, he dominated the 2004 European cadet championships. He scored two RSCO (Referee Stopped Contest Outclassed) stoppages and outscored his other two opponents 23-8 and 34-12. Lomachenko recorded his first notable win just a year later at the 2005 Semen Trestin Memorial when, still a junior, he defeated Vyacheslav Goyan, a 2002 European silver medalist and future Olympic bronze medalist and European champion.
Lomachenko dominated again in 2006, winning the Junior World Championships, picking up wide wins over Sergey Vodopyanov (who would become world champion the next year) and Andrew Selby (a future European champion and two time world medalist) along the way.
His first major outing at the senior level wouldn?t go as smoothly. At the 2007 World championships, Lomachenko struggled scorewise despite dominating the fight against China?s Li Yang, only winning 14-13. And in the finals, he met the ?1? in 396-1, Albert Selimov.
Selimov was the 2006 European champion and would add world gold, silver, and bronze to his trophy case by the time his career was over. The slick Russian southpaw managed to control Lomachenko, who still relied a lot on his quickness and athleticism to get on the inside back then, at distance for good stretches early in the fight to take a 16-11 win. The fight has been the subject of much debate and while like in any fight in the scoring machine era, some score worthy blows went unacknowleged by the judges, I don?t feel like Selimov was an unworthy winner. The loss was a learning experience for Lomachenko and seems to have prompted him to develop his distance and countering game. And let?s not forget that he still got a silver medal out of it. I can imagine worse things than the worst failure of your career being a silver medal at the world championships at 19 years old.
