CAMPBELL
FOR the first time in his career a question mark hangs over the great Vasyl Lomachenko.
In all my experience of serious shoulder injuries, fighters have rarely been the same again.
Lomachenko tore the labrum in his right shoulder, the cartilage that keeps the joint in its socket, in the second round against Jorge Linares in May.
It is a wonder that he was able to get through the bout, never mind win by stoppage in the eighth round.
Lomachenko was also down in the sixth against Linares. That made him human and suggests to every contender out there that he can be beaten.
Though there was talk of a move up to super lightweight to challenge for a title in a fourth category should he be successful against WBO lightweight champion Jose Pedraza at Madison Square Garden, I would caution against that.
The discrepancy in size makes his power less chilling and his ability to take a shot more problematic the higher up the food chain he travels.
Even at lightweight, his opponent tonight has a fiveinch reach advantage.
Of Lomachenko’s 12 pro fights, all but the first have involved a world title. For his 13th the WBA lightweight champ steps into unification territory for the first time.
At his peerless best the speed, power and sheer variety of Lomachenko’s formidable arsenal was just too much for mortals and if he returns to rude health a 10th stoppage win beckons.
But as I said, you never know how an injury like the one he sustained will hold up under the stress of championship boxing.
And as a result of the Linares bout there is a queue of fighters lining up for a shot at one of the greatest of all time. Should Mikey Garcia rethink his options following the jump to 147 to face Errol Spence in March, he is an obvious target at 135 pounds. There is a fight to be made with the unbeaten puncher WBA super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis, who in January last year inflicted on Pedraza his only defeat and is struggling to make 130 pounds.
And Luke Campbell, who will challenge for a world lightweight title next year, would snap Lomachenko’s hand off, as would Robert Easter Jr.
So it’s all to play for in New York where Lomachenko sets out to prove that he is still the man to beat at lightweight.
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