Vasyl Lomachenko successfully defended his two 135-pound (lightweight) title belts and added a third (WBC) to his collection by winning a lopsided, yet hard-to-earn bout with Luke Campbell in a fight between Olympic gold medalists before a loud sold-out crowd of 18,000-plus fans. The Ukrainian pound-for-pound king moved one step closer to his goal of undisputed lightweight world champion with his action-filled unanimous decision victory on Saturday, August 31, at the O2 Arena in London.
A one-sided 11th round saw Lomachenko knock down Campbell, nearly ending the fight, before going on to win 119-108, 119-108 and 118-109, notching still another significant achievement on his resume.
“Loma is up there with Muhammad Ali, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao. He belongs with those fighters,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said of the two-time Olympic gold medal winner in a post-match interview on ESPN+. Many in the sport consider Lomachenko the greatest amateur of all time and now the class of professional boxing.
Lomachenko is expected to get the opportunity to win the fourth title belt to become the undisputed champion early in 2020 against the winner of a match between world titlist Richard Commey (29-2, 26 KO) of Ghana and mandatory challenger Teofimo Lopez, Jr. (14-0, 11 KO) of the U.S.A., scheduled to meet on December 14 in New York.
Firstly, the 31-year-old, a world titlist at featherweight and junior lightweight, had to battle Campbell, a fellow lefty with a height and reach advantage. Campbell went the way of fellow-Brit Anthony Crolla, knocked out by Lomachenko in the fourth round last April.
“Maybe it’s a lucky place for me. I like it,” Lomachenko said of London, where he won his Olympic medal in 2012. Speaking with the press after the bout, he said, “Of course, I’m happy. In U.K. fans are the best fans in the world. Thank you. I appreciate it. Of course, I want to fight [for the fourth belt]. Of course, I want to fight with [Commey-Lopez winner]. I want to fight with Teofimo Lopez, but I do not think he will win this fight [against Commey].”
The fight started with a measured pace with the boxers sizing each other up. Campbell’s left hand to Lomachenko’s head in the waning moments of the first round was one of his few significant landed blows.
Vasyl Lomachenko lands a right against Luke Campbell on August 31 at O2 Arena in London.
Lomachenko returned the favor with a strong left in the final seconds of round No. 2 when he began establishing his jab. Round three saw a poised Lomachenko picking up the pace, landing several jabs, then a hard straight left which caught Campbell, his head snapping back.
Loma’s jab continued to land in the fourth, one snapping the challenger’s head back again, body punches doing damage, although Campbell bravely stood his ground and tried to fire back.
Making his third title defense, Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KO) enjoyed a strong fifth round, stalking forward, nailing Campbell with a clean straight left hand late. When the bell sounded, Campbell was hurt as Lomachenko pounded him with a flurry of powerful body shots.
Wild action ensued in the seventh round with Campbell hurting the Ukrainian via a left before Lomachenko came back to rock the Brit with a right hand and a series of hard body shots.
Campbell (20-3, 16 KO) was game, earning high marks for effort, but Lomachenko landed cleaner, harder punches in the ninth round. The final rounds saw both fighters go at it before Lomachenko really dominated the 11th.
Campbell took a pounding, dropping to one knee after absorbing a wicked right to his body, followed by a right to his head. After shakily rising to his feet, he was nailed by Lomachenko with punches, pushing Campbell into survival mode. The 11th round saw Loma outland Campbell 44-17.
Lomachenko was warned for a low blow in the 12th round by referee Victor Loughlin, only to return to pounding Campbell with so many clean shots the Englishman was forced to grab on to Lomachenko’s waist to keep from falling, wrestling the Ukrainian down to the mat.
Competitive in the first half of the fight, Campbell was overmatched in the second half. According to CompuBox statistics, Lomachenko landed 211 of 527 punches (40 percent), while Campbell landed 131 of 420 (31 percent). From the seventh through 12th round, Lomachenko outlanded Campbell 140-73.
Owning three of the four major belts, Lomachenko will strive to become the fifth boxer to win all of them in the four-belt era. He hopes to join cruiserweight/close friend Oleksandr Usyk (2018), who was ringside in London; junior welterweight Terrence Crawford (2017); and middleweight Jermain Taylor (2005) and Bernard Hopkins (2004).
Arum, the promoter of Commey-Lopez, plans to match the winner against Lomachenko. “Obviously we’re looking to win the fourth belt to unify the title,” Arum said. “But Loma and [manager] Egis [Klimos] have told [us] they can’t wait to come back to the U.K. to fight here again. The English fight fans are the best fans in the world. [Lomachenko] will fight the best fighters at featherweight, [junior lightweight] or lightweight. Only the best. He’s a special, special fighter.”