Flanagan’s eyeing Vas challenge
TERRY Flanagan believes he has the speed, strength and power to dethrone pound-for-pound great Vasiliy Lomachenko and reclaim his world title next year.
The former WBO lightweight champion continued his road back to the top with a straightforward points win over Honduran Jayro Duran at the Olympia in Liverpool on Saturday.
Flanagan, from Ancoats, is unbeaten at the weight – his two loses coming in world title fights at super-lightweight to Maurice Hooker and Regis Prograis.
And now he wants to take on the Ukrainian superstar, who holds the WBO and WBA belts as well as being named WBC ‘franchise champion’ following his win over Britain’s Luke Campbell in August.
“He’s the fight you want because he’s pound-for-pound the best in the world and it’s a win-win for me,” said Flanagan, 30. “It’s a fight no one would expect me to do anything in, but it’s a fight I really believe I can win due to my sheer power and strength. That’s how I feel.
“I’ve got the boxing skills to compete and beat him. Obviously, people will look at him and see what he has done to Jorge Linares and Luke Campbell and expect him to win, but I know what I can do, and I believe it’s a fight I genuinely do believe I can win.
“I’ve got speed, I have got strength, I have got all the fancy footwork. I wouldn’t like to give it all away, just in case we do fight, but I know the way to beat him, and I believe if the fight would ever happen, I would show it on the night.
“I want to become a two-time world champion.”
Flanagan has headlined shows in Manchester in world championship fights before, but understands if he is to challenge for the belts again, he may have to hit the road.
“I am not too bothered if I fight in front of 20 people. I just go in there and do my job, whether it would be abroad or at home, but it’s not really something that bothers me at this point,” he said.
“I won my world title in Manchester and I have done it all, and I defended my title there and had big fights. At this point it’s just about getting back there and winning my belt back.”
The victory over Duran was Flanagan’s third in 2019, and he now believes he is ready to take that step up to world level.
“I felt good,” he said. “It was a routine performance against a very tough kid. It looked to me that he wanted to get out of there after two or three rounds and he bit down on his gum shield and stayed in there.
“We knew what to expect, everything he did we knew what to expect. It was hard to get any boxing going as it was just me teeing off on him.
“I tried to hold my feet a bit more and see if he would come to me, but he was just coming in with head and swinging. We just had to get this win done and move onto next year.”
Flanagan now plans to spend the end of this year ticking over in the gym, enjoying Christmas with his family and will return to training in the new year.
“I’d like to get back in the ring in March. I’m going to let my coach and my team sit down and talk about where we go from here,” he said.
“I don’t really get involved in sitting down and talking about fights.
“I just get told when and who I am fighting. I want to be back boxing for world titles. I have shown my level now and I had five straight defences of my world title, and I am not ready to step back down yet in class.”