Numbers don't lie, but sometimes, they don't tell the entire truth, either.
Vasiliy Lomachenko announced his retirement from boxing on Thursday at age 37. He leaves the sport as a three-division world champion with a professional record of 18-3 (12 KOs). As the years go by, there will be a new wave of boxing fans who will not have witnessed the Ukrainian sensation apply his craft inside the ring. Instead, they will look at his record and ask how a fighter with three losses in only 21 fights can be considered great. Especially in an era when greatness is often defined by protecting an undefeated record, something that Floyd Mayweather made famous by retiring with a 50-0 record.
But Lomachenko was a different type of athlete, whose journey through the pro ranks after a remarkable amateur career, where he won two Olympic gold medals and amassed an extraordinary record of 396-1, ran opposite the majority of boxing careers. Rather than spend the early portion of his pro career facing unheralded opponents, Lomachenko dove headfirst into the biggest challenges and was defined by overcoming the odds.
In his second professional fight, less than five months after his debut, Lomachenko was matched up with rugged WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido in March 2014. Lomachenko was chasing history in an attempt to break the record by becoming a world champion in only his second fight. However, Salido had other plans. He missed weight by 2 pounds and used his size advantage, along with some dirty tactics, to outpoint Lomachenko by split decision.
Undeterred, Lomachenko would acclimate to the pro style and made good on his second attempt to become a world champion by defeating previously unbeaten Gary Russell Jr. by majority decision in June 2014 to claim the vacant WBO featherweight title, joining Saensak Muangsurin as the only fighters to become champions in their third pro fight.
But his best was yet to come.
Lomachenko successfully defended the title three times before moving up to junior lightweight, where he stopped WBO champion Roman Martinez in five rounds in June 2016 to become the fastest boxer to win world titles in two different weight classes (seven fights). After that, we were introduced to "No Mas-Chenko."
In his next four fights -- against Nicholas Walters (26-0-1), Jason Sosa (20-1-4), Miguel Marriaga (25-2) and Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0) -- Lomachenko forced each of his opponents to quit on the stool between rounds. With his superb footwork, pinpoint accuracy and extraordinary athleticism, Lomachenko was virtually untouchable during this remarkable run that cemented him as a mainstay in the pound-for-pound rankings. Against arguably the other greatest amateur boxer of this generation, fellow two-time Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux, Lomachenko easily dissected him, allowing Rigondeaux to land only 8% of his total punches in a sixth-round TKO victory.
It would take the average fighter a full career to accomplish what Lomachenko did in just 11 professional fights.
And he still wasn't done.
Although he was widely regarded as a small junior lightweight, Lomachenko made the trek up to lightweight for his next endeavor, challenging WBA champion Jorge Linares in May 2018. Although he was dropped in the sixth round, Lomachenko stopped Linares in the 10th round with a liver punch to become the fastest fighter ever to win world titles in three different weight classes (12 fights), obliterating the previous record of 20 fights held by Jeff Fenech.
With his pound-for-pound status cemented, Lomachenko unified titles with wins over Jose Pedraza and Luke Campbell but was unable to become undisputed champion when he fell short to IBF champion Teofimo Lopez. After winning his next three fights, Lomachenko came up short again in his attempt to unify all four major lightweight belts when he lost a highly controversial decision to Devin Haney. Both losses -- against Haney and Lopez -- were against naturally bigger opponents with youth on their side.
Before riding off into the sunset, Lomachenko laid waste to former undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. in May 2024 with an 11th-round TKO in his opponent's backyard of Perth, Australia. At 36, Lomachenko was unsure of his next move. Between his advancing age and yearning to be home in war-torn Ukraine, Lomachenko eventually decided that his boxing career was over.
Although Lomachenko didn't retire with a perfect record, his appetite to make history and take on the biggest challenges from the moment he turned pro is the reason he will waltz into the International Hall of Fame in three years. For most boxers, 21 fights is still part of the building phase.
With that same number of fights, Canelo Alvarez was a virtual unknown who was still fighting exclusively in Mexico. Terence Crawford had yet to win a major world title after his first 21 fights. Even Mayweather, who is rightfully recognized as the greatest boxer of this generation, hadn't accomplished what Lomachenko did in 21 fights. Lomachenko is the perfect example of needing to witness greatness in real time to fully comprehend it, and to not rely solely on numbers and records to tell a story.