While shooting to the top of the boxing pound for pound rankings in many observers eyes, Ukraine boxing sensation Vasyl Lomachenko still finds his star a slow burning one outside of hardcore boxing fans.

This will be helped of course with the added exposure of ESPN showing his fights in the States over the next couple of years.

But there’s one or two things he still battles. Some in and out of his control.

The main one in his control is improving his English.

It seems to be coming on very well fight to fight but to be a truly big star in the sport of boxing having fluent English will help his star grow even more in the media. Particularly in geographies like the United States and UK.

There’s also one or two things that he can’t do much about it, in fairness.

The main one at present being – finding opponents who can genuinely test him. He’s just after wiping out his main rival Guillermo Rigondeaux in rather easy fashion last time out.

Granted, he mentioned after that the win was against a much smaller man.

Many within boxing expected “Rigo” to be his acid test. This couldn’t have been further from the truth in reality however.

The other main challenge I see Lomachenko facing is the fact he’s in the smaller weight classes – which have traditionally always been a hard sell.

Floyd Mayweather made welterweight a popular division but before that it was all about the heavyweights in boxing. In terms of the sport’s glamour division.

The heavyweight landscape in boxing is genuinely interesting again with Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury all stealing world headlines in boxing at the moment.

Lomachenko to contend with this over the coming years will just have to keep churning in sensational performance. One after another. Consistently (three times a year at least) on ESPN.

Can Lomachenko become as big a star in boxing as Canelo or Anthony Joshua? Honestly, I’m not sure – but he certainly has the boxing ability.