Updated Ring Pound-for-pound rankings

By Boxing News - 10/20/2020 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: Ring Magazine has come out with its new updated pound-for-pound list. Not surprisingly, Vasily Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez have traded places following last Saturday’s fight on ESPN.

The former three-division world champion Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) has dropped from the #2 spot in the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound list to #7, where he now sits one spot below his conqueror Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) at #6.

Teofimo would obviously want a higher ranking in the new pound-for-pound list, but the fact that he was out-boxed by smaller, older fighter Lomachenko during four of the last six rounds didn’t help him.

You can argue that Teofimo needed more of a conclusive victory over Lomachenko for him to break the top five in the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound list.

Despite his loss, Lomachenko can potentially move back up in the rankings if he returns to the 130-pound weight division. A win for Lomachenko over top super featherweights Shakur Stevenson and or Miguel Berchelt should be enough for him to be rated in the top 3 in the Ring Magazine’s P-4-P rankings.

Ideally, a win for Lomachenko over Teofimo in a rematch would bring Loma back to near the top spot in the Ring Magazine rankings, but the young 23-year-old Lopez has already ruled out giving him a rematch.

Ring Magazine’ updated pound-for-pound list

Image: Updated Ring Pound-for-pound rankings

1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Naoya Inoue
3. Terence Crawford
4. Oleksandr Usyk
5. Errol Spence
6. Teofimo Lopez
7. Vasyl Lomachenko
8. Gennady Golovkin
0. Juan Estrada
10. Artur Beterbiev

Interestingly, WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury didn’t make the top 10 in the new Ring Magazine pound-for-pound rankings.

Given how impressive Fury looked in his win over Deontay Wilder last February, he should have been included on Ring Magazine’s ranking at some spot.

IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin arguably doesn’t belong in the top 10 on the pound-for-pound rankings due to his poor performance against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 2019, as well as his loss to Canelo Alvarez.

There are better fighters than the 38-year-old GGG in boxing right no that should have been ranked in his spot on the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound list.

IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr (26-0, 21 KOs) is another fighter ranked too high in the Ring Magazine rankings. Spence’s last two wins over Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia weren’t impressive enough for him to be ranked in the top 10 in the pound-for-pound list.

Porter fought Spence to a standstill in losing a controversial 12 round split decision in 2019. Also, Errol looked timid in beating the much smaller Mikey Garcia last year.

Lomachenko thought Teofimo would gas

Image: Updated Ring Pound-for-pound rankings

“Facing someone like that and doing what I did, you guys haven’t seen anything yet,” said Lopez at the post-fight news conference. “I picked up that he’s trying to take me to the later rounds, and he’s trying to stay on his toes.

“He thinks I’m going to gas out, and a lot of guys that do that, they end up failing from it. He thought that would work for him,” Teofimo continued in talking about his win over Lomachenko.

“I’m a young cat, yes, I am, but I’m a shark. If I go out there and you take me into deep waters, it’s going to reverse back on you. If you didn’t know, now you know.

Lomachenko couldn’t deal with Lopez’s turning ability, and that was the overriding reason for him not attacking the way he normally does in his fights.

Lopez had the footwork to cut off Lomachenko’s angles of attack in rounds 1 through 7. When Lomachenko finally took the match in close in rounds 8 through 11, he could get the better of Teofimo, who isn’t an exceptional inside fighter.

Teofimo is a great outside fighter, but he’s limited in close, and we saw that in the second half of last Saturday’s fight between hm and Lomachenko.

The fear that Lomachenko showed early in the match with Lopez is what was his ultimate undoing. By now, Lomachenko realizes that he gave the fight away to Lopez by giving him too much respect and fighting him outside for too long.

Teofimo did poorly when Loma was in close

Image: Updated Ring Pound-for-pound rankings

Lomachenko could have won the fight if he’d stayed in close and turned it into an inside war. Teofimo was uncomfortable each time Lomachenko got in close, and he looked confused when he was getting hit on the inside.

It’s as if, Teofimo felt that Loma wasn’t supposed to be able to fight on the inside. During those occasions, Lopez’s reaction showed that he doesn’t have experience fighting guys on the inside, and he was like a fish out of water.

IBF/WBA light-welterweight champion Josh Taylor will give Teofimo many problems if he faces him at 140, as the Scottish fighter is a superb inside fighter.

Taylor will watch the Lomachenko-Teofimo fight and notice that Lopez struggled on the inside, and he’ll take advantage of that weakness in his game.

Lopez baited Lomachenko in

Image: Updated Ring Pound-for-pound rankings

“That’s what it comes to. It’s hard facing fighters like this that don’t give you the excitement that I want to bring to you guys,” Teofimo said on Loma, fighting a boring way in the first seven rounds.

“I can only do my part and that’s about it. It’s tough facing someone like Loma and doing that at the beginning of half the fight and half the rounds,” said Teofimo in voicing criticism of Lomachenko’s passive approach during the first half of the contest last Saturday.

“I’m happy that we got the job done. I felt good. I baited him in. He tried to take me to the deep waters, and when I did, I reversed it on him by letting him tee off and letting him get comfortable, and let him get tired.

“I started hearing him huff and puff. Little by little, I started realizing that he was gassing out. And every time he would sit down in the corner, he would take big deep breaths, and I noticed that.

“I always look at my opponent and see what they do once they sit down for the next round, and I noticed that with him.

“I stayed composed. In order to do what I got to do, I have that second wind already lined up. I have that third wind lined up if I need to. I was two steps ahead of Lomachenko, and that’s what it came to. That’s what made me win the fight,” said Lopez.

It was boring to watch the first seven rounds of the Lomachenko-Lopez fight last Saturday. Lomachenko didn’t appear to be doing that on purpose. He didn’t choose the matter because he was out-boxed by Teofimo during the early going.

It wasn’t that Lomachenko was really outboxed. He looked like he was afraid to attack Teofimo, and he gave him too much respect.

Teofimo took away Loma’s movement

Lomachenko’s movement to the side was taken away from him by Teofimo, who moved with him to avoid getting out of position. Teofimo wouldn’t let Loma get out of position with his foot speed, forcing the Ukrainian fighter to stand in front of him to fight.

Teofimo says he “baited” Lomachenko during the second half of the match by letting him attack. It’s unclear whether Lopez is serious about that or just saying it to give an excuse for why he struggled in the second half.

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The more logical reason Lomachenko got, the better of Teofimo in rounds 8 through 11 is that he had more energy. Lopez looked tired in the championship rounds from the pressure being put on him, and he couldn’t fight at a high level.

Teofimo did much better in the first seven rounds because of the slow pace that Lomachenko set. ‘Hi-Tech’ Lomachenko wasn’t doing anything on offense, which allowed Teofimo to conserve his energy.

The 135-pound weight class is a difficult one for Teofimo to make at this point in his career, and it took a lot out of him to get down to the lightweight limit last Friday night. Teofimo doesn’t have the energy to fight at a fast pace at 135 because of how much weight he’s forced to take off during the week of the fight.

Image: Updated Ring Pound-for-pound rankings

Lomachenko made a mistake of not realizing how drained Teofimo was and not pushing a fast pace early in rounds 1 through 7 to force him to gas earlier. Had Lomachenko done that, he likely would have beaten Teofimo by a 12 round decision.