Vasiliy Lomachenko didn’t want to immediately discuss his controversial loss to Devin Haney immediately after tonight’s fight in the ring, but ESPN cameras in Lomachenko’s locker room showed the emotional effects the outcome had on the future Hall of Famer.
Lomachenko was seen in tears after the fight, surely believing that he’d done enough to achieve the last thing he hasn’t in boxing, becoming an undisputed champion, only to have it yanked away by the judges.
An emotional Lomachenko reflects backstage. pic.twitter.com/DQGvsrOxBo
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 21, 2023
“I don’t want to talk about this,” Lomachenko told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna when asked if he felt he’d won. “All the people saw what happened today.”
He added, “I can’t talk about this right now. It’s just, it’s not a comfortable moment for me.”
The 35-year-old Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KO) has plenty of people out there who felt he won tonight, from fans to media to others in boxing — though so does Haney (30-0, 15 KO), and as often happens, what’s unfortunately going to get lost in debate and arguments is that this was a great, high-level fight between two terrific boxers, and it really could have gone either way.
Someone won, and someone lost. Lomachenko came into this fight expect that this would be his last chance to fight for an undisputed championship, that he had to win. And you can see that coming out after the fight, how much this meant to him, that he believed he truly won this fight.
A rematch is probably marketable, but frankly the Haney side do not sound interested.
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