Boxing Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Vasiliy Lomachenko Reminds Of His Greatness, Jumps Again Into High 5

CBS Sports activities Graphic

Any rumors of former pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko’s demise have been significantly exaggerated.

Lomachenko (16-0, 11 KOs), a former three-division champion, reminded anybody in want of convincing simply how near his bodily prime at age 33 he stays. The 2-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine succeeded final Saturday in so totally dominating former 135-pound champion Richard Commey that Lomachenko was pleading to the referee to cease the combat.

The victory was the second straight for Lomachenko since his 2020 upset loss to Teofimo Lopez Jr., a combat by which hindsight would possibly inform us Lopez overachieved on the identical night time Lomachenko took a bit too lengthy to make his second-half adjustment. Lopez’s latest stunning defeat by the hands of upstart George Kambosos Jr. turned the ability construction the other way up at 135 kilos, making Lomachenko as harmful a menace as ever to unifying titles.

Lomachenko was crisp and good in opposition to Commey, which the oddsmakers anticipated in making him an enormous favourite. Nevertheless it was the swagger Lomachenko employed and his dedication towards being extra bodily within the clinch that supplied a nasty edge to the method.

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This was Lomachenko activating his former persona of “NoMasChenko” for the primary time in additional than two years. Though Commey finally completed the combat in a large determination defeat, Lomachenko’s demeanor instructed he was seeking to make a degree.

Lomachenko’s shift in direction of presenting a much bigger presence on the within may very well be the genius tactician doing his finest to offset his inevitable bodily decline contemplating his type is so dependent upon velocity and response time.

Ought to he be unable to attract title bouts in opposition to Kambosos or WBC titleholder Devin Haney, Lomachenko simply would possibly discover himself with a chance one division decrease in opposition to unbeaten junior light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson. Each fighters are promoted by Bob Arum and Prime Rank.