SOUND AND COLOUR

THE last time Vasiliy Lomachenko appeared in a boxing ring he was transported to London, England like some exotic animal, then studied like a magician’s hands by a 20,000-strong crowd whose cheers for his opponent, Luke Campbell, were mostly token and patriotic. It was for Lomachenko, after all, they had paid their money. They had paid to watch a fighter, not a fight.

On August 31, 2019, however, they got both: fighter and fight. Campbell played his part, even enjoying the odd moment of success, while Lomachenko, a technician known for perfection rather than drama, abandoned much of what made him untouchable to make a routine fight more entertaining than it needed to be.

It was clever. It was, like everything Lomachenko does, strategic. Yet this was a different kind of strategy to the usual. This was strategy on a larger scale. Forget the fight, the trip itself was strategic, with the event held in England because the Lomachenko legend had started to spread and more eyes wanted to see him. It was, we were led to believe, the fight to upgrade Lomachenko from a purist’s dream to a global superstar and it worked. Lomachenko, in winning both the fight and hearts, had ticked every