Degrees of Separation: Linking Vasiliy Lomachenko to first Ukrainian champ

Six degrees of separation is a theory that everyone in the world is separated by no more than six social connections. In other words, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Queen Elizabeth. …

Six degrees of separation is a theory that everyone in the world is separated by no more than six social connections.

In other words, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Queen Elizabeth. Or so the concept goes.

We’re borrowing the six degrees concept – well, sort of loosely – to connect fighters from the past to their more contemporary counterparts in our new occasional feature, “Degrees of Separation.”

Example: Let’s connect Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Super easy; we did it in two steps. Senior fought Grover Wiley, who fought Junior.

In this installment of the Boxing Junkie feature, we decided to try to link Boxing Junkie’s No. 1 fighter pound for pound, Vasiliy Lomachenko, with the first Ukrainian-born fighter to win a world title, Hall of Famer and featherweight titleholder Louis “Kid” Kaplan.

It was no easy task. Kaplan last fought in 1933 — 87 years ago — and Lomachenko, who fights Teofimo Lopez on Saturday, has only 15 pro fights. It took a lot of steps but we managed to do it.

Check it out:

Louis Kaplan fought …

Cocoa Kid, who fought …

Ray Barnes, who fought …

Sugar Ray Robinson, who fought …

Denny Moyer, who fought …

Vito Antuofermo, who fought …

Marvin Hagler, who fought …

Sugar Ray Leonard, who fought …

Hector Camacho, who fought …

Oscar De La Hoya, who fought …

Manny Pacquiao, who fought …

Marco Antonio Barrera, who fought …

Amir Khan, who fought …

Terence Crawford, who fought …

Yuriorkis Gamboa, who fought …

Roman Martinez, who fought …

Vasiliy Lomachenko

Whew!

Could you do it in fewer steps? Let us know via Twitter or Facebook. Or you can contact me on Twitter. And please follow us!

Read more:

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