Vasyl Lomachenko teasing about a move to the UFC?
While Roy Jones Jr. is hanging out at the UFC Performance Institute and Floyd Mayweather is posting videos of himself in an Octagon, another boxing superstar is teasing an MMA fight- and this one actually has grappling experience.
Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko might just be the best boxer to ever live. He has two Olympic gold medals to his name and has been absolutely tearing through the ranks of top professionals, most recently fellow Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. After Rigo quit on the stool, Loma dubbed himself “No Mas” Chenko, and has been seeking another top fight ever since.
This week he called out Jeorge Linaras at a fight at 135 with a tweet that read:
You ready to fight me at 135 @JorgeLinares ? If not, maybe I’ll go win a belt in the UFC first while waiting on you. ? pic.twitter.com/XHApvExSoD
— Hi-Tech Lomachenko (@VasylLomachenko) January 29, 2018
The tweet was accompanied by a video of Loma executing a decent Freestyle Wrestling turn and mat return. Of course Loma is known for his playful demeanor, but one UFC fighter is taking him dead seriously- UFC Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, who posted a tweet in reply:
Come to the Octagon and let’s do this. Hit up @danawhite @seanshelby https://t.co/OzdKWIX7Vo
— TJ Dillashaw (@TJDillashaw) January 29, 2018
These two have history together, having sparred on several occasions. It’s clear from the footage who has better skills in a boxing ruleset.
Curiously though, Lomachenko seems to like the attention he got from his tweet, and he has followed up with social media posts featuring various clips from a compilation of him training in various combat sports as a child.
Of course Lomachenko’s home nation of the Ukraine has a rich freestyle wrestling culture and history. If there was a boxer with the overall athletic talent to absorb new skills it would probably be Lomachenko, yet the real possibility of him stepping into an Octagon is hard to imagine.
Still it is curious that all these boxers are teasing involvement with the UFC. Perhaps there’s more to this than mere hype and social media teasing…
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