Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank

You don’t play boxing.

But Vasyl Lomachenko played with junior lightweight titleholder Roman Martinez on Saturday, displaying his otherworldly skills until he was ready to get down to business.

Lomachenko dominated and completely out-classed Martinez, softening him up and then finishing him with a whipping right hook that flattened Martinez in the fifth round in the main event at Madison Square Garden’s Theater. It was Lomachenko’s most dramatic and emphatic win of his brief career and he celebrated by doing a double back-flip in the center of the ring and climbing to the top rope and yelling to the crowd.

History never looked so easy and fun. With the knockout win, which came at 1:09 of the fifth, Lomachenko became the first fighter to win a belt in a second weight division in just his seventh fight, wresting away Martinez’s WBO strap. Lomachenko (6-1, 4 knockouts) was ahead 40-36, 40-36, 40-36 at the time of the stoppage.

Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, who had attended Muhammad Ali’s funeral in Louisville on Friday after promoting more of his fights than anyone else, put Lomachenko in the same generational light as Ali with that performance. “We have had a lot of fighters at Top Rank,” Arum told the reporters at ringside. “Ali was the greatest of his time and Lomachenko is the greatest of his time.”

Arum said that Lomachenko, who also has a featherweight title, would stay at junior lightweight to challenge the top fighters of that division, such as Francisco Vargas, Nicholas Walters, and Orlando Salido, who handed Lomachenko his only loss and was in attendance on Saturday. Arum spoke of the economic challenges of getting Lomachenko on HBO because of apparent budget constraints. However, he’s confident the network will remain behind him because of his immense talent.

“HBO is the kind of network that whatever the budgetary restraints – they’ll find money for a superstar,” Arum said. “If Muhammad Ali was around today in his prime and wanted another two fights, they would find money for a Muhammad Ali fight. They’ll find money for this kid’s fight because you’re looking at history here. This is not hyperbole. This kid is something special. We haven’t seen the likes him of ever. And he’s still getting better.”

Arum was asked about such HBO fighters as middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. Lomachenko is on a different level, Arum said. “They’re terrific fighters, there’s no argument,” Arum said. “They’re terrific punchers and everything. They don’t have the skills of Lomachenko.”

Asked if he was impressed by Lomachenko’s knockout, Salido said he wasn’t because he felt that Martinez was weakened from having to make the 130-pound limit. Salido may have been the only one who wasn’t stunned by what he did.

Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank

The southpaw Lomachenko darted in and out, firing shots while on the move and escaping before Martinez even knew what hit him. Lomachenko stunned Martinez in the second round with a hard left and then spun him around and landed several more punches. Martinez tried to pick up the pace in the third round but Lomachenko just picked him apart with lefts and rights. The 28-year-old punctuated the third with a straight left that buckled Martinez. “I couldn’t see his hands,” Martinez said.

Lomachenko was modest in victory. “I need more fights to get better,” he said in the ring afterward. “I want more fights to make history. I want to line up all the best fighters at 130 and see who the best fighter is. I came to do my job. I did my job very well tonight. I will fight Salido any time. Let’s do it. I want to fight Salido for my fans. I dedicate my victory tonight to the greatest man who ever laced up the gloves — Muhammad Ali.”

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter at the New York Daily News and can be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.