Lomachenko: Pros In Olympics Good Idea; Making Weight Tough

By Keith Idec

There might not be a greater authority than Vasyl Lomachenko on what it takes to become an elite amateur and professional boxer in the 21st century.

The AIBA announcement Wednesday that revealed boxing’s international amateur sanctioning organization has voted to allow professional boxers to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was met mostly with harsh criticism. Lomachenko, however, explained during a conference call Wednesday why he thinks it is a good idea.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist acknowledged that implementing the rule change two months before these games begin wasn’t wise. The Ukrainian southpaw still doesn’t think professional fighters have as big an advantage as some opponents of the move believe.

“I wouldn’t be scared,” Lomachenko said through an interpreter. “I would be glad because all of my boxing career, ever since I was little, I was always saying, ‘If you wanna be the best, you have to fight the best.’ If someone would’ve told me at the 2012 Olympic Games in London that professional fighters were gonna participate, I would’ve been very happy because that would’ve been a big challenge for me.

“But, on the other hand, don’t forget that being a good professional fighter doesn’t mean he’s gonna go win an amateur fight because we have two different structures. We have three three-minute rounds and we have to fight every day for five, six days. It’s completely different preparation. It doesn’t mean a good professional can beat a good amateur.”

Lomachenko won the featherweight gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He captured the lightweight gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Four fights after defeating Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16 KOs) by majority decision to win the then-vacant WBO featherweight title, the ever-ambitious Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) will challenge Puerto Rico’s Rocky Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs) for the WBO world super featherweight championship June 11 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden (HBO).

Confidence never has been an issue for Lomachenko, who fought for a featherweight world title in just his second professional fight two years ago.

He feels lesser amateur fighters than he was will have advantages, too, particularly when it comes to making weight repeatedly throughout the course of an amateur tournament. Lomachenko cautioned that professional fighters accustomed to adding 10-20 pounds between the time they weigh in and the time they fight won’t be able to put on too many pounds if they win an Olympic match and have to weigh in again the next day.

“Don’t forget, and this is the most important thing, you have to weigh in every day before the bout,” Lomachenko said. “You don’t do like what [Orlando] Salido did [against me] – weigh in at 126 and come out for the fight 147. It’s not gonna happen.

“Maybe you’re gonna do one bout [like that]. But the next day, how are you gonna step in again from 147 to 126? It’s a completely different game. This is probably the main thing here, where you have to be in your weight class six days in a row.”

The 28-year-old Lomachenko doesn’t expect star professional boxers to fight in Rio de Janeiro, mostly because they don’t have enough notice to prepare properly for that type of event. Even when they have an appropriate amount of time to prepare, Lomachenko wonders how many established professional fighters will take the risk by boxing unknown amateurs with everything to gain and little to lose.

“If you’re talking about these Olympics in 2016, I don’t think it would be a wise idea for any professional who just heard about the news to jump in right now into the Olympic Games,” Lomachenko said. “They have only a two-month period [to prepare]. I think there needs to be more time to prepare for it.

“As far as the idea, having a professional boxer in the Olympics, I am all for it. I like that idea because if you take any other sport – basketball, tennis, swimming, any other sport – they support professional athletes and professionals participate in the Olympic Games. It just makes everyone stronger.

“For the 2020 Olympics, I think a lot of professional fighters are going to be [participating] because they’re going to have a lot of time to prepare for it. But I don’t think the big stars in boxing – like Pacquiao and Mayweather – are gonna take the risks to go to the Olympic Games. They’re already stars, and they go to the Olympic Games, and some amateur can beat them. I don’t think they’re gonna take the risks.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.