American sports journalist Mark Kriegel posted a short news story on his Instagram about Ukrainian boxers who are now defending their country from Russian occupation.
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āWhen the invasion began, Vasily Lomachenko was in a monastery on top of a mountain in Greece. In the silence, he heard a call to arms. āBut you have a beautiful house in California! said his manager Egis Klimas. "Take your family there!" "Are you suggesting that I run away?" Lomachenko asked. āBut you are jeopardizing your fight! the manager replied. āAll the belts you worked so hard for!ā āThey are endangering my country,ā Lomachenko said.
āBy Sunday, he was seen in combat uniform with a machine gun as a territorial defense fighter. By Monday, such battalions appeared throughout Ukraine, and the current heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk was in their ranks. Tens of millions of dollars were at stake for Usyk for a rematch with Anthony Joshua, but he also felt he had no choice.
āNow he is the third heavyweight champion, ready to die defending his country. Among them are Wladimir Klitschko and his brother Vitaliy, the mayor of Kyiv.
"If Putin's occupiers faced tougher than expected resistance, perhaps this has something to do with the national character of Ukraine, and something in this character has been revealed in the ring since 1996.
āUkraine won 15 Olympic medals in boxing and gave the world eight professional champions.
āOther athletes also came to the defense, but other sports are a metaphor for wrestling, while boxing is a real fight. The only difference is that boxing is a fair fight, and war is never fair,ā ESPN said in a story.
