Top Rank promoter Bob Arum continues his conversation with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV and discusses Vasiliy Lomachenko opting to return to Ukraine following the Russian invasion to take an active role in defending his country. Arum says Lomachenko could have easily taken his family to the United States amidst the conflict, but felt a duty to defend his people and his land, showing himself to be a true man of character. Check out some of what Arum had to say on the subject below.
“Vasiliy was, before this conflict broke out, was training in Greece,” Arum said. “There’s a Russian orthodox monetary in Greece where all the monks are Russian speaking and apparently it’s up high enough, you clear your lungs and everything, and he went there after his friend Oleksandr Usyk went there and recommended. So now he’s in Greece, this war breaks out where Putin’s aggression, he is contacted by Egis Klimas, his manager, and his family is still in the Ukraine.
“Now what he could’ve done was fly — he couldn’t fly into Ukraine — so he flew back to Romania and got a car and drove over the border to be with his family and enlist in the defense of Ukraine. Now what he could’ve done if he thought only of himself was to fly into Romania and have his family — which would’ve been perfectly okay — meet him in Romania and take ‘em all back to the United States where he has a house, and he has a green card here. So he didn’t do that. Why? Because as he told Egis, he felt his obligation was to the people of Ukraine and he was gonna stand and fight against the Russian aggression.
“Now that to me is real heroism. And not that, it hit really in the pocketbook because he’s no fool, we had a deal in principle with Lou DiBella for him to fight Kambosos in Australia in June and that fight now is obviously in jeopardy because he is in Ukraine fighting for his people. And also there’s now an edict that if you’re a military age person and Ukrainian you can’t get out because you have to fight. But, again, he was out and chose to go back in. So a lot of props for Vasiliy Lomachenko. He’s my hero and what he did in this situation is demonstrate tremendous courage.”
