A professional boxing tournament has ended in Australia. The main event of the night featured an IBF world title fight between Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos.
Vasily Lomachenko does not need any special introduction. In his amateur career, the Ukrainian won the World Championship twice and also two Olympic Games: in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. After that, Lomachenko turned professional, where he began to set records. Already in his third fight in the professional ring, he became world champion in the featherweight division, made several defenses, after which he moved up the ranks and in the seventh fight of his career he became world champion in the second division. featherweight. Seven fights and two world titles in two categories are fantastic statistics. But Vasily did not stop there. He moved up to lightweight, where he also managed to become world champion. In his twelfth fight in the professional ring, he won a belt in his third weight class, in the best tradition of Roy Jones.
Tournament highlights:
Lomachenko – Kambosos: Loma knocked out the Australian and became world champion again
Vasily stayed in the lightweight division for a long time, won three championship titles and in 2020 held a unification fight for the title of absolute world champion. In a duel with Teofimo Lopez, Lomachenko unexpectedly lost, losing all of his belts, but this did not break Vasily. He continued the path of victory and had another chance to become absolute world champion. In his last fight, Lomachenko faced four-belt holder Devin Haney. Vasily had an excellent fight, but the judges gave preference to the undefeated Haney, which caused much controversy. After that, Haney dropped all the belts, one of which Lomachenko fought again.
How Lomachenko was “robbed” in his fight with Haney:
“Boxing is dead. “They promote young people, not the winner.” The world’s reaction to Lomachenko’s defeat
Vasily’s opponent was Australian George Kambosos. George is six years younger than Lomachenko and does not have as much amateur experience as Vasily. At the same time, Kambosos built an excellent record as a professional in his homeland, after which he set out to conquer world boxing. With a record of 19-0, George had the biggest opportunity of his career and he took advantage of it: Kambosos defeated Teófimo López, who took the belts from Lomachenko, and became the new undisputed world champion. True, not for long: this was followed by two defeats by Devin Haney and Kambosos was left without belts. So for him, the fight with Lomachenko was an excellent opportunity to get back to the top.
In the first rounds, Kambosos deliberately worked on the body, trying to slow down Vasily from the first minutes. Lomachenko saw it all and most of George’s punches landed in the air. The Ukrainian himself moved well, was fast, actively used his front hand and was instantly involved in a series of blows. Lomachenko significantly interrupted his opponent and Kambosos did not know how to act against the pressure and speed of the Ukrainian.
It’s too early for Lomachenko to think about retirement:
“I’m old, my career is almost over.” Isn’t Lomachenko planning to retire too soon?
In the third round, George began to respond more and tried to get excited. But at the same time, Lomachenko was still ahead in terms of efficiency. Vasily played a lot of tricks and forced the Australian to be constantly nervous. At the end of the round, the boxers agreed to exchanges and even exchanged blows after the gong, expressing their mutual displeasure. In the fourth round, Vasily continued to maintain a high pace, fencing with his lead hand and constantly pulling on his opponent. Kambosos tried to invest in power shots, but Lomachenko’s speed and footwork were at a level unattainable for the Australian. In the corner, George was told that he should fight Vasily and not box, because Vasily confidently won the fight on points.
Kambosos listened to the advice, tried to lure Lomachenko into exchanges, into power boxing, but Lomachenko acted competently. Vasily constantly approached with a jab and threw a series, after which he would move away to a safe distance. George was not prepared for such a move from the 36-year-old Ukrainian and was unable to catch his opponent. He continued to seek happiness in body shots, investing in power punches, but Lomachenko saw it all.
The pattern of the fight did not change at the beginning of the second half of the fight. Lomachenko set the pace of the fight, controlled the situation, fired series at point-blank range and left the line of attack. An indicative moment was the episode in which Kambosos wanted to invest in a forceful retaliatory attack, but Lomachenko eluded the Australian and he, once again hitting the air, simply fell. Vasily’s moment proved unattainable for the Australian.
Vasili Lomachenko
Photo: Getty Images
In the later rounds, Kambosos continued to try to engage the Ukrainian in exchanges in hopes of knocking out his opponent. More often George used his far hand and shot deuces, but Lomachenko saw it all. Vasily stayed in line with him, still flew at a short distance, launched a series and moved away to a safe distance. The Australian could not match Vasily’s speed, the Ukrainian was time and again ahead of his opponent and looked much fresher.
In the eleventh round, Lomachenko put a convincing end to the fight. Vasily still controlled everything that happened in the ring, stayed in line with him and managed to catch the open Kambosos. The Ukrainian hit the Australian hard in the body and George was forced to his knees. Kambosos barely survived the knockdown and continued the fight, but Vasily unleashed a flurry of punches on his opponent and forced the Australian’s corner to throw in the towel. Vasily Lomachenko won a landslide victory and became the new IBF world champion.
