Vasyl Lomachenko is a reigning world champion once again, following an exceptional performance and win against George Kambosos Jr. last month.
With ‘Loma’ sure to be in huge fights and possible unifications later this year, there is one thing that can be promised when you tune in to watch the Ukrainian technician – that his sensational 396-1 amateur record will be mentioned by the commentary team. Here, we at Boxing Social look into the career of the man who dealt Lomachenko his only amateur defeat – Albert Selimov.
Lomachenko met Selimov in the final of the 2007 AIBA’s in Chicago, after defeating Abner Cotto, Fedor Papazov, Mikhail Biarnatski, Arturo Santos Reyes and Yang Li in the previous rounds. Meanwhile, Russia’s Selimov had triumphed over Juan Gabriel Stan, Marcel Herfurth, Bahodirjon Sultonov, Raynell Williams and Yakup Kilic (walkover).
A cagey first-round saw Selimov land the cleaner work and go into his corner with a 3-1 lead, although the purest shot was scored by the Ukrainian. The jerky, side-to-side yet front-footed style of ‘Loma’ did cause problems for Selimov, but he was able to pick his shots well off of the back foot and jump in and out of range effectively.
By the end of the second, the momentum appeared to be with the 19-year-old Lomachenko despite being 7-6 down on the cards.
However, Selimov remained efficient and landed solid punches as his dance-partner attempted to take control, going into the final round with a 12-8 advantage that was extended to 16-11 in the fourth – winning him the World Amaateur Championship and leaving a devastated Lomachenko in tears.
Selimov’s win came one year after his gold medal at the European Amateur Championships in Plovdiv and represents the biggest honour on his résumé, as well as the biggest name.
Although, Lomachenko was able to avenge his lone loss on two occasions, defeating Selimov at the Beijing 2008 Olympic games as well as at the 2013 World Series of Boxing, where Lomachenko won a razor-close split-decision.
During his amateur career, Selimov also defeated the likes of Seán McComb, José Pedraza, Robson Conceicao and Lazaro Alvarez but hung up the gloves in 2016 after losing in the quarter-finals at the Rio 2016 Olympics, finishing with an amateur record of 236-17.
Whilst Selimov never made the switch to the professional ranks, Lomachenko took the world by storm as he became a three-division world champion.
‘Loma’ has gone on to lose three times since his professional debut, losing to Orlando Salido, Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney although only the latter of those three replicated the style of Selimov and attempted to pick shots off of the back foot.
At present, Lomachenko’s fellow lightweight champions are Shakur Stevenson (WBC), Gervonta Davis (WBA) and Denys Berinchyk (WBO) but it is Stevenson who continues to be linked to Lomachenko and it is he who fights most similarly to Selimov, leaving a sense of intrigue as to whether Lomachenko can make the necessary adjustments.
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