Vasiliy Lomachenko has described his loss to Teofimo Lopez as ‘the most disappointing fight, and the one that motivated me most.’
In 2020 the Ukrainian went into his bout with Lopez as the unified champion, holding belts from all four governing bodies. However, he suffered an upset loss and has been on the comeback trail since.
His comeback has since been delayed by the war in his homeland after Russia’s invasion, and he now returns to action this weekend against unbeaten American Jamaine Ortiz with rumours he could be in line for a fight with undisputed champion Devin Haney in the near future.
Speaking to The DAZN Boxing Show, he discussed some of the fights that meant the most to him.
“I should say there is a reason for me being in this pound-for-pound list despite my losses: because they don’t count by losses, they count by skills,” Lomachenko began.
“Speaking about the most disappointing fight, and the fight that motivated me most, is my fight against Teofimo Lopez.
“Speaking about the most memorable fight, I’m talking about two fights in my career because they were difficult fights, in Macau against a Thai boxer [Suriya Tatakhun in 2014] when I had to fight with an injured hand, and the fight against Jorge Linares when I had a shoulder injury.
“My goal [from] turning professional [was] to go into history.”
Quizzed about a potential fight with Haney, all he would say was, “I heard those rumours as well.”