Vasiliy Lomachenko has revealed he plans on calling time on his glittering career in the not too distant future.
Now 36, Lomachenko has been without doubt one of the standout fighters of the past decade, holding multiple world titles at three different weight classes.
Though he was, unjustly in the eyes of some, defeated by Devin Haney last time out, ‘Loma’ has the opportunity to add further world honours to his impressive collection this weekend, as he takes on George Kambosos Jr for the vacant IBF lightweight strap.
And in a recent interview with Fox Sports Austrailia, the two time Olympic gold medalist confessed he feels like an “old man” in boxing, though stopped short of saying exactly when he would hang up the gloves.
“If you are talking about ages in boxing … I’m an old man.
“But my career is almost done, of course. How many years it’s going to be, one, two, three, that’s it.
“But I still think I have a little bit of power. It’s a hard question [when I will retire exactly].”
“At this stage, every fight is hard. It’s hard to recover after fights.
𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 🇦🇺 #LomachenkoKambosos | Sunday, 3am pic.twitter.com/hNurvS6ydi
— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) May 7, 2024
I don’t know what will happen with my body after this fight and that’s why I can’t give you an answer to this question [of when I will retire].”
Saturday night’s match up between Lomachenko and Kambosos has huge ramifications for both the two men involved, as well as the lightweight division as a whole.
It is difficult to imagine a route back towards world title contention for the loser, whilst Top Rank’s plan looks to be for the winner to go into a unification bout with the victor of the July 6th match up between Shakur Stevenson vs Artem Harutyunyan.
And even if he does have one eye on the door out of professional boxing, it would be a fool to write a fighter as gifted as Lomachenko off against anyone at 135lbs.
