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ONCE the boxer who all fans adored and every up-and-coming fighter daydreamed of becoming, Vasiliy Lomachenko, at 35 years old, is suddenly in a fight to save his career. A one-sided loss to Devin Haney and he’ll be cast aside as yesterday’s news, merely the latest boxer to fall at Father Time’s feet. Haney, 11 years the Ukrainian’s junior, might then take his place as the sport’s latest invincible man. But he too will one day experience what many are predicting will happen to Lomachenko on Saturday night inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The circle of life, particularly in its truncated boxing form, is agonisingly cruel. No sooner have all the hours in the gym paid off, when everything is flowing beautifully, the shots crack and the target unmissable than the trigger gets jammed, the bullets fall short and the ability to withstand or avoid any return fire diminishes. It’s a familiar story with an inevitable end.
But it still seems hard to believe that Lomachenko, of all people, will this weekend go the same way as the rest. Not so long ago the untouchable magician, one so in tune with his box of
