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In the 2008 Olympic final, Lomachenko straight-up blitzed France’s Khedafi Djelkhir in a first-round stoppage to claim gold at featherweight. Stunning performance.
In the semi-finals of the 2009 AIBA World Championships, the newly minted Olympic champion dispatched Mexico’s Oscar Valdez (a future pro world champion who I’m sure many of you will be familiar with) by an emphatic scoreline of 12-1.
Lomachenko bested Russia’s Sergey Vodopyanov in the final, an awkward opponent he’d previously met in the 2006 Juniour World Championships. Despite the 12-1 scoreline in favour of the Ukrainian, the fight itself isn’t big on action but here’s a quick snippet.
This might be one of my favourite clips - Loma pretending to draw a bow and firing his left hand like an arrow. The arrogance
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤣" title="Rolling on the floor laughing" aria-label="Emoji: Rolling on the floor laughing">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤣" title="Rolling on the floor laughing" aria-label="Emoji: Rolling on the floor laughing">
After moving up to lightweight, Loma kicked off his 2011 campaign (for me, the greatest calendar year for a fighter in amateur boxing history) by beating Ukrainian compatriot Denis Berinchyk, who would go on to win Olympic https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥈" title="Second place medal" aria-label="Emoji: Second place medal"> at light-welterweight the following year.
Fun fact - Berinchyk was dating Lomachenko’s sister around this time. Bet that was an awkward one at dinnerhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤣" title="Rolling on the floor laughing" aria-label="Emoji: Rolling on the floor laughing">
This fight was actually at 64kg, although Loma would move back down to 60kg straight after. Berinchyk wonhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥈" title="Second place medal" aria-label="Emoji: Second place medal"> at the World Championships this year.
This fight was actually at 64kg, although Loma would move back down to 60kg straight after. Berinchyk won
In the first round of the 2011 AIBA World Championships, Lomachenko beat down the hapless Lomalit Moala of Tonga. Listen to the sound of those body-shots landinghttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😖" title="Confounded face" aria-label="Emoji: Confounded face">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤢" title="Nauseated face" aria-label="Emoji: Nauseated face">
In the third round Loma came up against Brazil’s Robson Conceição, who would later go on to win https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥇" title="First place medal" aria-label="Emoji: First place medal"> at the 2016 Rio Olympics as a lightweight. In Loma’s closest fight since his loss to Selimov in 2007, the Ukrainian initially lost the bout before the decision was overturned.
Rightfully so, I should add. The judging and refereeing in this contest was absolutely abysmal, with Loma scoring 3 valid knockdowns that weren’t called. The initial decision was pure nonsense, and whilst Conceição proved a tough test the right man ultimately advanced.
Conceição has always been a hot-and-cold fighter, but when he’s hot, he’s *red hot*. Despite giving a very good account of himself here, I’m sure these clips will give some idea of how Lomachenko deserves this one.
Loma’s quarter-final opponent was Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, a future Olympic gold medalist at light-welterweight in Rio 2016. Lomachenko beat the Uzbek by a comfortable 18-10 scoreline.
In the semi’s, Loma squared off against reigning lightweight world champion & #1 seed Domenico Valentino of Italy. The Ukrainian progressed to the final by a 17-11 decision victory over his rival.
5x Cuban national champion Yasniel Toledo awaited in the final, but Loma showed his class by outpointing Toledo 17-12 to become a two-weight amateur world champion. And check out this beautiful knockdown!
Here’s some more footage of their 2011 AIBA World Championship final encounter.
Just admire some beautiful boxing against a very good opponent. Different gravy, as Eddie Hearn would say.
In a rematch of their 2011 final, Lomachenko & Toledo met again in the semi-finals of the London 2012 Olympics. In a thrilling contest, Loma would once again emerge victorious.
Have to feel for Toledo, fantastic boxer who was unlucky to compete in the same era as the amateurhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🐐" title="Goat" aria-label="Emoji: Goat">
Have to feel for Toledo, fantastic boxer who was unlucky to compete in the same era as the amateur
Fantastic pressure from a Lomachenko. Just a pleasure to watch.
@jaime_ingleby79 Toledo landed eye-catching right hooks to the body, but Loma largely got the better of these exchanges and his bodywork was more consistent.
To cap off his stunning amateur career, Loma grabbed his second Olympic gold with a comprehensive victory over South Korea’s Han Soon-Chul in the final. Simply magnificent.
The Ukrainian was just too good, and though Soon-Chul gave a good account of himself, he was never really in the bout.
