Vasyl Lomachenko, a boxer from Ukraine, has helped his country take another step towards earning an Olympic medal on Monday August 11, 2008 when he defeated fellow Olympian boxer, Russian Albert Selimov 14 to 7. Selimov is currently the defending world champion in the 57 kilogram featherweight division. This was not the first time the two boxers have faced off. They went head to head at the world championship in Chicago, United State, last year where Selimov won the title and it was a quirky twist of fate that matched up these two men in the first round of the Olympic boxing events.
Lomachencko was considered the underdog in this Olympic match-up with many people looking at Selimov as the favorite and the one who was going to take the title from his fellow Russian boxer Alexey Tishchenko. Instead, Lemachencko came back from a 2 to 0 deficit after the first round to take the next two with 13 to 3 points. Once he got started he never looked back and now Lomachencko will go head to head against Bahodirjon Sultonov of Uzbekistan in the second round. Sultonov beat India’s Anthresh Lakra and is considered a serious medal contender in the sports and boxing world.
