The Man, The Myth, The Matrix: Ranking Lomachenko’s Best Wins

Photo credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Just how great is Vasyl Lomachenko?

In 15 professional contests, the Ukrainian phenom is a three-weight world champion and sits near the top of the pound-for-pound list for many. There’s no debating his talent, and if there’s any dispute over that I’d suggest you stop reading here. Yet whilst Lomachenko’s skills are evident, the historic nature of his rise in the professional ranks and his easy-on-the-eye style has led to the Ukrainian’s career being romanticised by some. It‘s all too easy to be dazzled by Lomachenko’s achievements, the slew of records he has broken and his infamous ‘No Más’ streak; the true measure of greatness lies in analysing and rating the quality of a win.

The reasoning behind this is simple; trying to measure greatness based on the eye test is highly subjective and difficult to pin down, whilst ranking the quality of a significant win out of 100 is an attempt at quantifying greatness. I assign a rating to a win based on the quality of an opponent at the time of the bout, and whilst this is in itself subjective, I‘ll provide analysis in order to justify the reasoning behind my rating. The size, age, form and attributes of an opponent will be factored in, as will the method of victory when grading a win (for example, awarding a higher grade for a dominant performance). Any win that I consider less than a 75 won’t be included, which will explain some omissions.

For now, I‘ll be assessing Lomachenko’s professional career only - his incredible amateur career deserves its own attention in a separate article. With that being said, let’s begin with the first quality win of Lomachenko’s professional career; a majority decision victory over Gary Russell Jr. for the WBO featherweight title.

Quality Win #1: 2014 Gary Russell Jr. (80)

In his first world title win, Lomachenko put in a dominant performance (don’t be fooled by the scorecards) against an undefeated Gary Russell Jr, who has since gone on to make six title defences as the WBC champion. All in his third pro fight, no less. That’s a remarkable feat, and whilst the Ukrainian deserves his plaudits, I do feel that the win itself is slightly overrated.

Whilst Russell came into the bout with an eye-catching undefeated record, in 24 fights he hadn’t shared the ring with anyone close to the level of Lomachenko’s previous opponent, Orlando Salido. Russell was very much unproven himself, with his ability being based off of eye test rather than meaningful victories, and it cost him in a fight where he looked utterly lost at times.

Granted, nearly everyone does when they share a ring with Lomachenko. But in particular, Russell’s offensive game-plan was exposed here, and he offered little other than fast and flashy flurries that rarely ever hit the mark. Whilst Lomachenko deserves credit for nullifying Russell with his movement and bodyshots, which slowed down the American as the fight wore on, I also think that Loma could have won more emphatically than he did. He was too passive at times, likely a symptom of trying to manage his energy having still not adjusted to the 12 round format, and let Russell off the hook when he had him in trouble.

A good win, no doubt, and one that looks better in hindsight given what Russell has gone on to achieve. I do think that Russell has improved slightly since the loss, adding more nuance to his game, so I’ll judge him based on this performance rather than what came after. What stops this win from breaking into the 80’s for me is Russell‘s shallow offence, his inability to adjust, and the fact that Lomachenko could well have got the stoppage had he put the burners on.

Quality Win #2: 2016 Román Martinez (75)

Two years later, Lomachenko claimed a world title in a second weight class with a rout of tough Puerto Rican Román ‘Rocky’ Martínez in his super-featherweight debut. Loma looked sensational here, but what drags the quality of this win down is his opponent.

Don’t get me wrong, Martínez is a solid if unspectacular champion; a hard-nosed and tough fighter best suited to battling the bruisers of Salido’s ilk. But he was never anything more than a B-level fighter, for my money, and that showed when he was battered by Mikey Garcia three years prior.

Everyone knew that Lomachenko was the more skilled fighter and the likely winner, but perhaps Martínez had the grit and physicality to make it interesting. The truth however was that Martínez was out of his depth against Loma; too basic, too slow and too limited to give the Ukrainian a meaningful challenge. Outside of sneaking in the occasional right hand, Rocky found himself one step behind all night and had no answer for Loma’s footwork, feints & speed. In a fight that was becoming increasingly one-sided, Lomachenko took advantage of Martínez’s dipping by finishing him with a beautiful left uppercut-right hook combination to put a stamp on his superiority.

So what bumps Martínez up just enough to see him feature here? For me it’s Loma’s performance; he not only outclassed Rocky but scored a KO over a durable champion who had only been stopped once before. Martínez’s limitations stop me from rating this win any higher, but I feel it was a display that’s worthy of mention.

Quality Win #3: 2016 Nicholas Walters (83)

For my money, Lomachenko’s finest performance to date came against undefeated lower-weight boogeyman Nicholas ‘Axe Man’ Walters, a fighter who’s fearsome power often sees his technical ability and skill-set get overlooked. It’s a shame that Walters hasn’t fought since, as many seem to have forgotten how good he actually was, but going into this fight I thought that the Jamaican was a difficult stylistic matchup for Loma and would give him a tough fight.

My reasoning? Loma’s game is predicated on blindsiding an opponent, stepping around them and unleashing combinations before they can realign, but I expected Walters to impede Loma’s circling by meeting him with hooks as well as making use of a side-on stance in-close, which would see Loma reaching for the left hand. The combination of an impressive inside game that belied his length, as well as his power and physicality, had me convinced that Walters would be Loma’s toughest test to date.

I was wrong. It wasn’t so much that Walters didn’t perform to the level he’s capable of - in fact, he actually did a lot of the things I listed above. Lomachenko was just simply on a whole other level, and put on a clinic which ended with Walters quitting on his stool. Let’s take a closer look at what happened.

Loma obstructs Walters’ vision and occupies his guard with a double jab, before seeking to gain outside lead foot position. Walters intercepts him with a left hook however, and uses his extended lead hand to control the head head and prevent Loma from circling.

In a near identical sequence, Loma once again flashes the jab before proactively ducking under the ensuing left hook and gaining outside lead foot position. Walters pivots in response, however Loma jabs to blind him before using his extended lead hand to realign himself with Walters who’s now squared up. Loma steps on his lead foot and takes advantage of his compromised shape with a southpaw 1-2.

What sets Walters apart from Loma’s previous opponents is the effective adjustments he made mid-fight, which have sadly been overshadowed by the fight’s disappointing ending. With Loma having largely taken away his left hook to the head with proactive upper-body movement, Walters begins to instead focus on hooking to the body. To his credit, he actually had some real success with the left hook downstairs in round 6, catching Loma on several occasions. Check it out below.

Walters’ jab elicits a high-guard from Loma. Noting this, Walters feints the jab to once again draw the high guard, but deceptively gains outside lead foot ok sition and lands a left hook to the body.

Walters ducks under Loma’s straight left and fires back with another thudding left hook to the body.

Loma’s response? In what my colleague Lukasz refers to as “hips don’t lie” (the correct technical term, I believe) Loma begins to jerk his torso away from Walters to avoid the left hooks to the body.

Which conveniently brings me full circle to my overall point; despite the bout being one-sided, Nicholas Walters didn’t roll over when he faced Lomachenko that night. He did a lot of things that should have given Lomachenko problems, and made smart adjustments when Loma took away his weapons too. The fact that ultimately, it didn’t even matter only makes this win more impressive in my eyes. The Ukrainian dynamo was at his scintillating best, and against his finest opponent to date he put in a truly stunning performance which elevates this win to a strong 84 in my eyes.

Quality Win #4: 2017
Guillermo Rigondeaux (79)

Opinions on how to rate the quality of this win seem to be divided into two camps - some hail it as Lomachenko’s best performance, a masterclass against a fellow P4P-calibre fighter who was outclassed and embarrassed. Others view it in a more negative light, deriding the fight as a meaningless win against an ancient Rigondeaux fighting two divisions above his usual weight.

My opinion of the fight itself lies somewhere in the middle, which I think is reflected in my rating. I don’t think age was as big a factor as Lomachenko just being a nightmare stylistic matchup for Rigondeaux. The Cuban’s game centres around his ability to control rhythm and range, which allows him to dictate the tempo of the fight. Against orthodox fighters, his instrument of choice is a dexterous lead hand that can both lull opponents into a rhythm as well as occupy their guard. Often you’ll see Rigondeaux paw with the jab before exploding into a viper left hand which comes on the half-beat, catching an unsuspecting opponent cold. Rigondeaux’s counter-punching & its threat makes opponents tentative, which is why we so often see him in low-output affairs - it’s a pace that, at his age, is much more manageable.

The problem is that the entire dynamic changes when Rigondeaux faces a fellow southpaw. By pawing with the jab, Rigondeaux’s centre-line becomes exposed, and without the ability to establish his lead hand Rigondeaux is markedly less effective. We saw exactly that against Lomachenko - he failed to establish any sort of rhythm, and with his centre vulnerable the Cuban was overly receptive to Lomachenko’s feints which threw off his timing. From the first round he found himself immediately on the defensive, biting on each feint (in part due to the threat of his size) and offering little other than turtling up and clinching.

To Rigondeaux’s credit, Lomachenko was consigned to a measly 16.2% punch connect rate, (the lowest of his career thus far) and was forced to employ multiple layers of feints and throw-away shots just to land. But outside of that, Rigondeaux had no offense of his own - his traps were far too basic, his power wasn’t enough of a factor to dissuade Loma from coming forward and, as a result, the Ukrainian was forcing a pace on him that ‘El Chacal’ couldn’t live with.

To see the proud Rigo humbled in a way he likely never has been before was a sight to see - make no mistake, he quit in there and had no answer for Loma. Whilst age and size undoubtedly had parts to play (although the latter is overstated by some - Loma’s style isn’t one that seeks to impose physical advantages and it was Rigo who was attempting to work in the clinch / off the break), I think the most significant factor was the closed stance matchup.

Overall, I feel like 79 is a fair score here. Rigondeaux deserves credit for forcing Loma to adopt a different approach in order to land, but in all truth the fight was one-way traffic from the start and Rigondeaux was never in it. With that in mind, I’ll give Loma some extra marks for the end result, as reducing a truly great boxer to hopelessness is worthy of merit.

Quality Win #5: 2018
Jorge Linares (83)

Seeking new challenges, Loma moved up to lightweight in 2018 for a fight against the talented Jorge Linares. Before we discuss that win, it’s worth bearing in mind that throughout Loma’s 135lbs run so far we’ve started to see that an opponent’s physical advantages have become an increasing factor in his fights at the weight, and that the size differential is starting to bridge the skill gap between him and his opponents. This of course leads to more difficult fights, which is accounted for in my subsequent ratings.

Onto Linares; the late, great Emmanuel Steward once labelled the Venezuelan a “beautiful boxer” and, observing him in the ring or even shadow box, you’d be inclined to agree. Fluid, crisp combinations blended with impressive hand speed makes Linares a pleasure to watch.

The problem is, Linares is seen by many as the definition of ‘style over substance’ - an illusion if you will - in that for all his offensive gifts, his vulnerability & defensive flaws have prevented him from ever truly reaching the elite level. After all, this is a fighter who has been matched relatively soft since his KO loss to DeMarco, and although there have been flashes of brilliance (the Crolla rematch comes to mind) it’s worth remembering that Linares went life-and-death with the game but limited Kevin Mitchell.

So why do I rate this win so highly? In large part, it’s due to both the stylistic nuances of the matchup and the fact that Linares put in the most complete performance of his career. The Venezuelan’s significant size advantage meant that Lomachenko wasn’t able to punish his suspect durability in ways we’ve seen before, & his hand-speed allowed him to be equal to, and at times even better, Loma in exchanges.

Lateral movement has never been one of Linares’ strong suits, and it’d be fair to say he’s a fairly linear fighter. In his fight with Luke Campbell, the Brit was able to curb Linares’ effectiveness & output by stepping around him. Against Lomachenko however, Linares was far more prepared to deal with circular movement and was able to both pivot with Loma and make use of check hooks when exiting. His footwork made him well-equipped to dealing with one of Lomachenko’s key strengths, whereas Loma lacked the firepower to exploit Linares’ biggest weakness - his fragility.

Whilst Loma ultimately prevailed, Linares made him earn it and the Venezuelan had some early success by punching with Lomachenko which stifled his volume somewhat. But Loma responded brilliantly, using his feints to make Linares hesitant to throw in combination. Just as Loma looked set to take control however, Linares punished him for a lazy entry with a perfectly timed right hand, sending the Ukrainian to the canvas for the first time in his professional career.

Although the knockdown was the result of a mistake on Lomachenko’s part, I don’t think it should detract from his performance too much; you could even argue it added to it, seeing as he had to overcome adversity and recollect himself which is something we haven’t seen Loma do in the pro ranks before. The fact that he tore his rotator cuff so early on (round 2) only further cements this.

Where the fight was won and lost was initiative - Lomachenko forced a pace on Linares that he simply couldn’t keep up with, and Linares has always struggled in fights where he isn’t the one who’s dictating the action. As Loma’s pressure began to tell, Linares found himself increasingly forced on the backfoot where he’s markedly less effective; without being able to set his feet, he struggled to deliver meaningful offence and lacked a sharp enough jab to keep Loma off of him.

Linares has never been particularly adept at incorporating upper-body movement into his defence, and over the course of the fight his reliance on a static high guard became increasingly apparent. Loma picked up on this and exploited it for the finish, drawing Linares’ high guard with a combination to the head before unleashing a beautiful southpaw left hook to the liver.

Linares has his detractors, and understandably so. On this night though, he put in a career-best showing and proved that, under the right circumstances, his skills can translate to the elite level. Loma was genuinely tested in this fight, but the fact that he rose to the challenge and ended it in emphatic fashion adds some gloss to a hard-fought win that ranks among his best.

Quality Win #7: 2018
José Pedraza (79)

Pedraza is another good example of a fighter whose quality, like Linares, is best judged on a particular night rather than assessed as a whole. Take his loss to Gervonta Davis back in 2017 - as impressive as Tank’s performance was, Pedraza fought a bizarre tactical fight and looked in poor condition, perhaps as a result of being drained making the weight.

That fighter was a far cry from the Pedraza we saw against Lomachenko in 2018, who not only came into the fight with a much more effective game-plan but appeared to be in better condition too. In particular, Pedraza’s movement and his willingness to punch with Loma stood out. The Puerto Rican was able to constantly pivot with Lomachenko, preventing him from being flanked, and his upper-body movement made Loma miss more than we’re used to seeing. Coupled with an impressively high output as well as feints to throw off Loma’s timing, Pedraza made for an awkward and tricky test.

That being said, this wasn’t a vintage Loma performance by his own lofty standards, even if he did comfortably win the fight. Loma seemed somewhat cautious early on, perhaps both rusty from coming off of shoulder surgery as well as mindful of aggravating the injury itself (he appeared wary of using the right hook at first). There was also a notable absence of consistent bodywork from Lomachenko until the final third of the fight, which seemed strange considering that Pedraza’s head was proving to be an elusive target at times. Targeting the body earlier would have also slowed down Pedraza’s volume, but outside of a few body-jabs and hooks Loma didn’t focus much on going downstairs.

When he finally did in round 11, Loma almost got Pedraza out of there. By attacking different levels, Lomachenko was able to manipulate his opponent’s guard and create openings for shots to the head and body. To Pedraza’s credit, he showed good survival instincts and managed to slip a number of Loma’s punches, but his size advantage and subsequent durability no doubt played a part in being able to weather the storm.

How did I come to “only” rate this win as a 79, then? Well, two things. First of all, despite fighting to the best of his ability I never felt that Pedraza was pushing Loma. He was staying in the contest throughout, sure, but Loma never really had to get out of second gear. To successfully pull off the plan that Pedraza followed you’d have to be a truly special our fighter, and although his effort was impressive, he was never going to win by trying to outbox the Ukrainian.

The other thing is that weighs this win down is that Loma’s performance simply felt a little lacklustre. Perhaps the ‘No Más’ run has resulted in us having unrealistic expectations, and it’s no doubt foolish for us to expect a man coming off of shoulder surgery to look 100% against a legitimate opponent at a weight class above his best. But despite looking excellent, he didn’t reach the heights we’ve seen him capable of. For that reason, I don’t rate this win quite as high as some of his best.

Quality Win #8: 2019
Luke Campbell (83)

If Lomachenko looked somewhat flat against Pedraza, his next performance against Britain’s Luke Campbell was anything but. Campbell fought brilliantly, arguably enjoying the most consistent success we’ve seen against Loma so far, and brought the best out of the Ukrainian. The fact that Loma was still able to outbox the Brit and dominate the fight is what makes this win so impressive, and why it’s thoroughly deserving of a high 83 rating.

Campbell has always been a very good fighter, even though I didn’t consider him necessarily elite coming into the fight. He gave a good account of himself by running Jorge Linares close back in 2017, and showed development in beating tough Frenchman Yvan Mendy to avenge his first pro-loss three years prior, but I’d be hard pressed to say that I thought Coolhand would’ve given Loma the trouble he did.

In the buildup, a lot of attention was drawn to Campbell’s length as something that could potentially trouble Loma. As anticipated, Campbell sought to keep Loma on the end of his jab throughout the fight, stiff-arming the Ukrainian and punishing him whenever he tried to close the distance. But Loma quickly took away Luke’s jab with proactive upper-body movement, slipping under the extended lead hand before mixing it up with straight lefts to the body and spear jabs. What surprised me though was that, when Loma did close the distance, Campbell was much better on the inside than I’d anticipated.

Loma wasn’t able to circle and take the angles he usually does, in large part to Campbell’s smart positioning and smart use of the rear hand. He timed Loma’s dips with uppercuts and cut him off with shovel hooks, as well as making use of his lead shoulder to both push Loma off-balance as well as line him up for the left hand.

As a result, Loma was forced to box on the outside a lot more than we’re used to seeing. Despite the fact that Campbell’s range was touted as a strength, it was in fact Loma who had his best work there for large periods of the fight. With Campbell more than holding his own on the inside, Loma had to layer his offense in order to break through.

Helped in large part by a committed and vicious body attack throughout, Loma began to wear Campbell down as the fight went on. Eventually, the pressure told. Despite giving Loma a number of tough, competitive rounds earlier on, Campbell was reduced to target practice by the latter stages with the Ukrainian in full flow and countering him at will. Although he couldn’t get the finish, in part due to Campbell’s remarkable toughness and the durability his size advantage afforded him, Loma put on a thorough beating to leave no doubt who the better man was.

This was one of those fights where you could look at the scorecards and it simply wouldn’t tell the whole story. I only gave Campbell two rounds myself (and could see three at best) but he made Loma work for every one until finally being overwhelmed late. The Brit deserves immense credit for forcing Loma to raise his game, and as a result we were privileged to witness a remarkable display of boxing.

To Conclude

Loma may not have the most impressive résumé around, and in all truth his greatness will never match his talent. There just isn’t the level of competition around 126lbs-135lbs to be regarded that highly. It’s a great shame, of course, but those who know what they’re watching will be fully aware that he’s one of the most special boxers to have ever stepped into the ring.

That being said, his record is hardly anything to be sniffed at - in 15 fights, he’s achieved a great deal and collected an impressive haul of scalps. He’ll get the chance to add another on October 17th, when he faces the powerful and explosive Teófimo López in a lightweight unification match. It’s a legitimately dangerous fight for Loma, and one that could very well be considered his best win yet. Until then, all we can do is wait.