Numbers don’t lie, but sometimes they don’t tell the whole truth either.

Vasiliy Lomachenko announced on Thursday that she had retired from boxing at the age of 37. He left the sport with a professional record of 18-3 (12 KOS) to become a three-point champion. As the years go by, there will be a new wave of boxing fans who won’t witness the feeling of Ukraine applying his craft to the ring. Instead, they will check out his record and ask how the fighter that lost three of the 21 battles is considered great. Especially in an era when greatness is often defined by protecting unbeaten records, Floyd Mayweather is known for retirement with a 50-0 record.

But Lomachenko is another type of athlete, after his extraordinary amateur career, after a professional team, he won two Olympic gold medals and accumulated an extraordinary record of 396-1, opposite to most boxing professions. Lomachenko Dove first faces the early stages of his unpopular opponent's career, but faces the biggest challenges and defines them by overcoming odds.

Less than five months after its debut, Lomachenko was in his second professional match against rugged WBO lightweight champion Orlando Salido in March 2014. However, Salido has other plans. He missed 2 pounds and used his size advantage and some dirty tactics to surpass Lomachenko by split decisions.

Lomachenko was uncomfortable and would adapt to his professional style and defeated formerly unbeaten Gary Russell Jr. in a majority decision in June 2014, his second attempt to become a world champion.

But his best hasn't come yet.

Lomachenko successfully defended the title before being promoted to Junior lightweight, and in June 2016 he stopped WBO champion Roman Martinez in five rounds, becoming the fastest boxer to win the world title in two different weight classes (seven battles). Afterwards, we were introduced to "No Mas-Chenko".

In the next four battles - with Nicholas Walters (26-0-1), Jason Sosa (20-1-4), Miguel Marriaga (25-2) and Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0) - Lomachenko forced each of his opponents to resign on the stool between rounds. Lomachenko was barely reachable in this excellent match with excellent footwork, precise accuracy and extraordinary athleticism, which made him a pound ranking. Lomachenko opposes another generation of greatest amateur boxer, twice-win Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux, allowed him to easily dissect him, allowing Rigondeaux to only get 8% of his total punches in the sixth round TKO victory.

In just 11 professional battles, ordinary fighters can do everything Lomacoco does.

And he hasn't finished yet.

Although he was widely concerned as a small junior lightweight, Lomachenko made the trek up to lightweight for his next endeavor, challenging WBA champion Jorge Linares in May 2018. Although he was dropped in the sixth round, Lomachenko stopped Linares in the 10th round with a live punch to become the fastest fighter ever to win world titles in three different weight classes (12 fights), obliterating The previous record of 20 Jeff Fenech held a battle.

Lomachenko consolidated the unified unification title with his pound form, beating Jose Pedraza and Luke Campbell, but he couldn't be the undisputed champion when he didn't have IBF champion Teofimo Lopez. After winning the next three battles, Lomachenko again faced a shortfall, trying to unify four lightweight belts when he lost the highly controversial Devin Haney decision. Both losses against Haney and Lopez were both natural bigger opponents on the same side as the youngsters.

Before riding to sunset, Lomachenko moved forward in May 2024 with undisputed lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. at 36, Lomachenko was unsure of his next move. Lomachenko finally decided that his boxing career was over at his promotion age and desire to be in a home in war-torn Ukraine.

Although Lomachenko did not retire with a perfect record, his interest in history and taking on the biggest challenges is why he will be in the International Hall of Fame within three years. For most boxers, 21 fights are still part of the construction phase.

In the same number of battles, Canelo Alvarez is a virtual unknown who is still fighting in Mexico only. Terence Crawford has not won the world championship in his 21st game. Even Mayweather, who is taken for granted as the greatest boxer of this generation, did not accomplish everything Lomachenko did in 21 battles. Lomachenko is the perfect example of the need to witness greatness in real time to fully understand it, rather than relying on numbers and records to tell a story.