Report- Lomachenko had shoulder surgery Tuesday

There has been much speculation as to why former unified lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko gave a largely flat performance in his Saturday night 12-round decision loss to Teofimo Lopez in Las Vegas.

And now, Yahoo Sports boxing Insider Kevin Iole has given some insight into part of what was going on. This after he reported on social media Tuesday that Lomachenko has had right shoulder surgery,

Just learned that @VasylLomachenko had shoulder surgery yesterday performed by highly respected Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Story to come soon on @YahooSports

— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) October 20, 2020

As Iole later tweeted the surgery was deemed a success and was on his right labrum. That’s the same shoulder that had also previously been operated on several years ago.

Iole further reported that Lomachenko had discomfort with the shoulder six weeks prior to the fight, and got these comments from the doctor that treated and eventually operated on him.

Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache said,

“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. “It turns out he had badly bruised the rotator cuff and chipped a piece of cartilage, which we didn’t realize 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.

ElAttrache continued, “the things we did for him after the first surgery made him pain-free and his shoulder stable enough that he could go and win a couple of championships after that surgery,” ElAttrache said. “I wouldn’t expect he’d have any limitation after this one for what we were able to do. Not all repeat surgeries have a worse prognosis.”

Lomachenko only threw 321 punches in the 36 minutes of action compared to the 639 punches that Lopez threw in the fight.

The unbeaten New Yorker dominated the early part of the bout and cruised to an easy unanimous-decision win to capture the WBC, WBA, and WBO titles to go along with his IBF 135 lb. belt.

Many we’ll immediately draw the parallel to the 2015 Undisputed World Welterweight Championship Battle between Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao

Very similarly, it was Pacquiao who mysteriously was not very aggressive or throwing a large volume of punches. And, it was learned post-fight the Pacquiao had suffered a shoulder injury in training that he withheld from everyone. Pacquiao had rotator cuff surgery a short time after the fight it was sidelined for nearly a year.

Iole reported further that Lomachenko should be able to rehab and train as soon as January and he may be available to fight again shortly thereafter.

It’s also believed that he will move back down in weight to 130 lbs. where the 32 year old dominated for a three year period.