Vasyl Anatoliyovych Lomachenko (, ; also spelled Vasiliy; born 17 February 1988) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes from featherweight to lightweight, including unified and lineal titles at lightweight. Lomachenko is one of the most successful amateur boxers of all time, possessing a record of 396 wins and 1 loss, with that loss avenged twice. Competing in the featherweight and lightweight divisions, he won a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships, gold at the 2008 European Championships, consecutive gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and consecutive gold at the 2009 and 2011 World Championships. Making his professional debut in 2013, Lomachenko tied the record with Saensak Muangsurin for winning a world title in the fewest professional fights, becoming the WBO featherweight champion in his third fight. He is known for his exceptional hand speed, timing, accuracy, creativity, athleticism, defence and footwork. He has won several awards by media outlets throughout his career. The Ring magazine and ESPN named him Prospect of the Year in 2013; CBS Sports named him Boxer of the Year in 2016; HBO Sports named him Boxer of the Year in 2016 and in 2017; and the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring named him Fighter of the Year in 2017. As of January 2023, Lomachenko is ranked as the world's seventh best active boxer, pound for pound, by The Ring. He is also ranked as the world's second best active lightweight by The Ring and ESPN, third by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and fourth by BoxRec. Early life Lomachenko was coached by his father Anatoly Lomachenko from a young age. He claims that if his father had not been a boxing coach he probably would have chosen to play ice hockey professionally. According to Bob Arum in 2017, Lomachenko's father did not let him train for boxing until he attended traditional Ukrainian dance classes. He then went on to gymnastics before finally getting into the ring. Amateur career At the 2007 World Championships in Chicago, he won silver by beating Abner Cotto in the first round, Theodoros Papazov, Mikhail Bernadski, Arturo Santos Reyes, and Li Yang in the semifinal to reach fellow southpaw and Russian favorite Albert Selimov, to whom he lost 11–16. Lomachenko won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He beat his five opponents by an astonishing 45