alex.ua wrote: ↑29 Oct 2020, 22:15
gilgamesh wrote: ↑28 Oct 2020, 21:11
alex.ua wrote: ↑28 Oct 2020, 18:00
Loma fighting Lopez at 135 should be compared to Floyd fighting somebody like one of Charlos at 154.
Nah, the size gap wasn't that big.
Floyd's optimal weight is 140, Loma's - 130.
There seems to be a false narrative about Lomachenko being too small for 135lbs and that Mayweather Jr. was much bigger than the Ukrainian.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. competed in only one world title bout at 140lbs, against a fighter that was arguably past-his-prime and had also achieved greater success competing in lighter weight divisions.
Money May engaged in more world title bouts at 130lbs than he had at 147lbs or 154lbs. He also appeared to be a much better fighter competing at that weight.
Partially because he enjoyed a size advantage over his foes and also due to the fact he was far more stylistically aggressive, resulting in him scoring significantly more KO's at that weight division against world-rated opposition than any of the others he had competed in.
Floyd competed at 130lbs for five years, spanning 27 bouts (20 KO's). Nine of them were world title bouts (defeating five world champions, one of them being a Hall-of-Famer), whilst also scoring six stoppages.
In terms of Lomachenko, he has pretty much maintained the same ring weight for the last decade or so.
• The Ukrainian usually enters the ring weighing around the 140lbs mark (give or take a few pounds), regardless the “official” weight class he competes in.
• Lomachenko also campaigned at 132lbs in the amateurs, which was about a decade ago.
• He also competed in half a dozen or so bouts at 135lbs during his 2013 stint in the World Series of Boxing.
• He had held the unified world championship at 135lbs for 2½ years prior to the Lopez defeat.
• Lomachenko also captured more world titles at 135lbs than he had in the lower divisions.
• Vasyl also campaigned at 135lbs for a considerably longer period of time than he had at 126lbs or 130lbs.
• Lomachenko only competed in five bouts at 130lbs, over 18 months, which is 3½ years less than Floyd did.
For sure, you’re entitled to your opinion, but those are the facts. You can't refute those numbers or timescales.
And the facts I’ve listed illustrate a significant point.
• Lomachenko looked better at 126lbs and 130lbs than he does at 135lbs, because he was facing smaller opponents. He even admitted that he struggled to cope with Lopez’s size and reach. He struggled to adapt against a bigger, stronger and more youthful opponent.
• And even though Mayweather Jr. campaigned at 135lbs and below for the same amount of time as Lomachenko has, Floyd was able to adapt, by maintaining his success against much bigger foes from 140lbs to 154lbs.
Many automatically and prematurely bestowed Lomachenko with an honorary rite of passage to being considered an all-time great, a fighter some previously considered to be even better than the prime iteration of Floyd Mayweather Jr., but now we know for sure that this clearly isn’t the case.
For the record, I’m not suggesting for one second that Lomachenko is a rubbish fighter, because he isn’t. I reckon he’s a dead-cert first-ballot future Hall-of-Famer.
However, he’s not achieved enough (in my mind) to earn the right to be regarded as a future all-time-great. And nor do I believe him to be a better fighter than the prime version of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
