“All amateur boxers who want to become Olympic champions go pro after winning a gold medal. I think all great amateur champions want to try and become pro champions. It was like that for me too.
When I won my first gold medal at the Olympics, I decided to turn pro. But I stayed because my father made such a decision. He explained that I had to go to another Olympics, since Ukraine did not have a two-time Olympic champion. This is a historic moment.
But I didn't think about it. I didn't understand this. One medal was enough for me, because it was my childhood dream. I fell asleep and woke up with this dream, lived with this dream. When I took the gold medal, I was ready for professional boxing. But my father explained to me that we need to do it again. I said: “Okay, no problem,” Lomachenko said in an interview with the ESNEWS YouTube channel.