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Mystery injury revealed after Lomachenko's shock defeat

Vasiliy Lomachenko in the corner between rounds.
Vasiliy Lomachenko has undergone surgery on his shoulder after his bout with Teofimo Lopez. (Getty IMages)

Many fans were baffled at Vasiliy Lomachenko’s opening rounds in his defeat to new lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez but an injury may go to some extent in explaining why.

Lomachenko lost his 135-pound WBC, WBO and WBA titles to new champion Lopez, who moved to 16-0 in his professional career.

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But only a few days after the bout, Lomachenko has undergone surgery on a shoulder injury he suffered six weeks before the fight.

The surgery will rule him out of action until January, his surgeon, Dr Neal S. ElAttrache told Yahoo Sports US.

“When he came in from the Ukraine for his last stages of preparation for the fight, he was having some difficulty with the shoulder,” ElAttrache told Yahoo Sports US.

“It turns out he had badly bruised the rotator cuff and chipped a piece of cartilage, which we didn’t realise at the time. But we knew he’d badly bruised the rotator cuff and badly bruised the bone where the rotator cuff attaches to the shoulder.

“That was roughly six weeks before the fight and we got him to where he was comfortable enough to train. He said he was able to train OK, but it continued to cause him pain during the fight.

Promoter unaware of Lomachenko injury

The injury came as a surprise to Top Rank’s Bob Arum, Lomachenko’s promoter, who claimed he had no idea that the Ukrainian had been in pain or injured before the fight.

He said he visited with him before the bout and that Lomachenko never mentioned it.

Regardless of his injury, Lopez showed his phenomenal athleticism in the 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112 judges scorecards.

Lopez didn’t duck and weave away from the challenge of fighting the champion boxer and showed he is destined to become one of the faces of boxing.

with Kevin Iole - Yahoo Sport US

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