Lomachenko: I can't speak English very well...I can't be a superstar

[Ritz Kola]

Canelo can't speak English at all, far as I can tell. That hasn't hurt his star status

If Loma could put on another 40 pounds though, that might do it.

Mex-Americans make up a decent percent of the population. He doesn't need to learn English lol. If he did he'd be massively more popular which translates into more marketable which translates into more money. He's seemingly okay though he's already making a ton of it.

Ukraine-Americans are probably 0.01% of our population so Loma doesn't have a large footing here. He'd have to shine through his personality/connections- like other stars or popular networks/and performances. He's only able to do the latter here in America...with great English he'd be 3x bigger.

[Ritz Kola]

Guess that rules Tank Davis out also

Tank went Hip Hop and transcended every American fighter but Wilder and Spence. He's just fine he's a household name.

Your persistent hate for Black American fighters is strange.

[SplitSecond]

Loma doesn’t have guys with a fanbase around him, that’s the problem. He needs to somehow associate with known guys to promote his name. That Garcia fight would have helped him a lot. Right now his best approach might be ****ting on Canelo everywhere he goes “Canelo is a phagit, i’d be willing to go to 160 and fight him”. The headlines would be “p4p #1 Vasyl Lomachenko calls superstar Canelo a phagit, wants to fight him”.ask for that Pacquiao fight at 140, or Call out media baby Spence. He can only go up though, No one is known down.

[BillyBoxing]

I disagree.

There have been plenty of mega star fighters, who have not spoken English during their careers.

Miguel Cotto only really started speaking English near the end of his career.

Miguel Cotto wasn't what I call a mega star...

[kidbazooka]

Loma could still be a superstar.

Just look at guys like chavez sr, Trinidad, Pac and Canelo all huge superstars in their day and neither really spoke any English

[GorillaDog]

Pacquiao couldn't speak English very well when he first started to become a star.

Pacman fought Fish Nets that's why he became a star. You need the passing of the torch for casuals to cling on. But speaking english does help I felt like Maravilla(who had the style) would have been more popular if he spoke english.

[BangEM]

He doesn't need to speak English. He just needs to beat big boxers that are stars with a fan base to gain that notoriety and superstardom. Look at how fast Ruiz's profile grew after beating AJ. And even AJ didn't become a superstar until his defining fight against Wlad, despite the starpower that he posses with other attributes. Mayweather had to beat Oscar De La Hoya to become a superstar. De La Hoya was involved in many defining fights with star to gain his superstardom. Even Pacman needed Marquez and a lot of defining fights, apart from attaching himself to Mayweather to get to that level.

I think the only boxer I know who became a superstar based off name and how ferocious he's in the ring against well matched opponent is Mike Tyson. Iron Mike never had any defining fights - his notoriety just came off style and how young he was in a period where America needed another superstar in boxing. He's the only outlier.

I think he'll probably need to stay at 135 for a year or two and beat Shakur, Teofiomo, Tank and Haney. If he can do that, he'll be as popular as Pacman was in his prime. Then move up to 140 and clean it up. And then 147.

[Ray*]

I don’t really take that as a major thing to be honest. Pacman was a cross over star and English isn’t his first language.

[GhostofDempsey]

Not true. Canelo and PAC aren’t eloquent speakers in English. The problem for Loma is that guys like Mikey, Tank, and other bigger names didn’t/don’t want to fight him. You cannot be a superstar until you are beating other big names. When he was at 126/130 no one wanted to fight him, and now at 135 the only ones I interested are from higher weight classes.

[elfag]

Theres no money in ukrainian boxing.

If he could speak german he could do better. Even wlad stopped fighting in the US because he made more over there.

He also didnt turn pro until 25 and won his medals for Ukraine.

Most superstars turned pro at like 20 and won their medals for the US. Or theyre mexican and turned pro at 16.