Floyd Mayweather singled out Vasiliy Lomachenko’s exceptional achievements as the boxing legend went in on the Ukrainian’s record-breaking championship feat.
Lomachenko won a bonafide world title in an unprecedented third contest. That’s despite ‘Loma’ losing his second fight to Orlando Salido.
The amateur star, who lost one of over four hundred amateur fights, was so good he could jump several levels and go straight for a belt.
But this doesn’t impress Mayweather. Even the fact Lomachenko turned pro and schooled top-level boxers doesn’t hit home.
Floyd Mayweather aims at Vasiliy Lomachenko
Mayweather sees Lomachenko beating far more experienced opponents as the straps being gifted to him, even though Lomachenko risked everything against Salido and suffered defeat.
Floyd Mayweather decided to let rip on the multi-weight ruler in a rant that diminished his current views on the sport and made him look bitter.
“You’ve got Lomachenko, a guy that – even though he had, what, 400 amateur fights – he’s a professional anyway [as an amateur]. But he shouldn’t be allowed to fight for a world title in his third, fourth fight,” Mayweather told media in promotion for an exhibition bout, as recorded by FightHub TV.
Missing the point entirely, the Grand Rapids-born Las Vegas native can’t see the wood for the trees. What Lomachenko did was something the vast majority of boxers turning pro, including Hall of Famers, couldn’t or wouldn’t risk their reputations to do.
If you’re good enough to challenge the champions immediately, then that’s your given right. You don’t have to get held back if you have the confidence to excel.
Lomachenko could have made more money dragging out his career and fighting fifteen also-ran opponents, beating them all handily. Still, as a gesture to the fans, he made it far more exciting by going straight for the champions.
Everybody knew he was capable. The same goes for Oleksandr Usyk. There’s no point knocking over tomato cans for an extended period when there are accolades to win.
A respected formula
Both Lomachrnko and Usyk have proven this is the case. There is one hundred percent nothing wrong with this formula.
Floyd is a respected voice and should know better than to disrespect one of our generation’s greatest fighters. If the shoe were on the other foot, Mayweather would undoubtedly have something to say about it.
The soon-to-be 46-year-old wants everyone to enter the paid ranks from the amateurs and follow the same pattern. If they did, the sport would be much worse off.
Outlining how he thinks things should be done, Mayweather added: “What I did in my career was when I turned professional so that I could fight for a title against Genaro’ Chicanito’ Hernandez, I fought 17 fights in a year-and-a-half.
“Then I fought for the world title. So I earned it. Nothing was given to me.”
If Mayweather thinks Lomachenko was gifted a world title when facing Orlando Salido and Gary Russell Jr. in his first two title fights, that’s on him.
However, you won’t find many top names in boxing who agree with that notion.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay. Twitter @PhilJWBN. Follow WBN: Facebook, Insta, Twitter.
