LAS VEGAS — Former lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko underwent surgery on his right shoulder on Monday night in Los Angleles and won’t be able to resume boxing activities until late January, his surgeon, Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache told Yahoo Sports.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum, Lomachenko’s promoter, said he had no idea that Lomachenko had been in pain or injured before the fight. He said he visited with him before the bout and that Lomachenko never mentioned it.
ElAttrache said the damage was in the same spot that Lomachenko had been injured and had surgery previously.
ElAttrache, who said he treated Lomachenko’s shoulder when he arrived in the U.S. from Ukraine roughly six weeks ago to train for his bout for the undisputed lightweight title against Teofimo Lopez, said Lomachenko had pain throwing a right hook during the fight.
He said the prognosis for a full recovery was good.
“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.
“We operated on him last night and he had what we call a hemorrhagic thickened bursitis. That’s the tissue that lubricates and cushions the rotator cuff, which is where we had treated him and injected him before the fight. On the inside of the shoulder where he had previously dislocated the shoulder, he had chipped the cartilage on the inside of the socket. That was right next to the [previous] repair so I did a small touch-up of the repair so I could cover up the bare cartilage in the front of the shoulder.”
The labrum repair wasn’t as extensive as the one he’d injured in his 2018 fight with Jorge Linares, when he’d dislocated the shoulder, ElAttrache said.
He said that while surgeries always carry risk, he doesn’t think Lomachenko will have any issue resuming his career.
“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.”
Vasiliy Lomachenko punches Teofimo Lopez in their lightweight world title bout at MGM Grand Las Vegas Conference Center on Oct. 17, 2020 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank via Getty Images)
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