Boxing pound-for-pound great Vasiliy Lomachenko enlists with Ukrainian forces to fight Russia invasion

Vasiliy Lomachenko, one of the best pound-for pound boxers of the current era, has enlisted with his hometown’s military forces in Ukraine to help fight off Russia’s invasion.

The 34-year-old is a former world champion in three weight classes and beat Richard Commey in his latest fight in December.

Former world heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko have already said this week that they will take up arms to help defend Ukraine, while Oleksandr Usyk, who is the current WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion since he defeated Anthony Joshua in September, has returned to his home nation and has called on Vladimir Putin to stop the conflict.

Lomachenko has also travelled back to Ukraine and has announced that he has joined the ‘territorial defense battalion’ for his hometown of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, which is located in the south of Ukraine near Moldova’s border.

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Lomachenko had been in talks to fight George Kambosos Jr, who is the unified lightweight world champion, in Australia this year.

On his official Facebook page, Lomachenko posted the photo of himself dressed in military clothing with a rifle strapped to his body with the caption: ‘The Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Territorial Defense Battalion has been formed and armed.

‘In the territorial defense, boxer Vasily Lomachenko informed the mayor Vitaly Grazhdan.’

Speaking on Sunday, Vitali Klitschko, who is the mayor of Kyiv, says he expects a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ following Russia’s invasion.

‘The Russians are almost on the border of Kyiv. From here, it’s not so far, I guess it’s 20km [12 miles] or less,’ he said.

‘Russians destroyed the economy of our country.

Jack Catterall