Former World Lightweight Champion Vasyl Lomachenko Joins Army Battalion and Klitschko Brothers on Front Lines in Russia vs. Ukraine War
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Former World Super Featherweight and Lightweight Champion Vasyl Lomachenko has joined the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Territorial Defense Battalion in Ukraine, and will be fighting as a combat in arms with former World Heavyweight champions Vitali Klitschko and Wladimir Klitschko on front lines in the Russian Federation versus Ukraine war.
Hundreds of soldiers and civilians, men, women and children, have already died on both sides. Ceasefire negotiations between the Russian Federation and the Ukraine continue.
Lomachenko, age 34, 16-2 with 11 knockouts, Oxnard, California, by way of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, last fought in December 2021 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, when he won the vacant Wo4rld Boxing Organisation Inter-Continental Lightweight title with a 12 round decision win over 30-3 Richard Commey of Ghana.
A two-time Olympic Gold medalist, Lomachenko’s career is in jeopardy, especially the deal Top Rank was putting together for Lomachenko to fight WBA, WBO and IBF World Lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. of Australia on June 5, 2022 on ESPN. If Lomachenko gets seriously injured, permanently injured, or in the worst case scenario, dies, this opens the door for WBC champion Devin Haney to fight Kambosos in a lightweight titular unification bout instead.
This all begs the questions of how many Ukrainian boxers and athletes are headed to the front lines with arms, and who will die? Also, does the world understand the battlefield and the conditions created by both sides which caused this war, which could lead in a few months to a world war in the midst of the Coronavirus? Lomachenko and the Klitschko brothers have entered a war the rest of the world does not understand, prepared to give their lives for a cause. A major funeral in the boxing world would not be a surprise, given the strange turn of events in Ukraine, where the major cities have been captured and
Recaptured in furious street fighting. It is hard to believe in 2022 this is happening, and this reporter prays for the souls of the victims on both sides, and hope the war will end soon. There are no referees, no rings, no ring ropes, and perhaps, no final bell for many.
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