Been watching Lomachenko- It is NOT his hand speed!

[Yuzo]

But it is his anticipation of his opponent's moves coupled with above average reflexes! It's not hand-speed to itself, or else Gary Russell Jr. would have won hands down. It's not about power either, or else everyone would be getting knocked out COLD on the floor. It is his superior knowledge of his opponent's moves and sharp reflexes.

Review the Garry Russell Jr. fight to see what I mean... Gary Rusell was quicker, and maybe even had a little more power than Loma- but he could not stop getting hit, Loma had him chasing shadows all night while, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN RUSSELL'S CAREER, he got OUTGOING fire from his flurries. Not just being beaten with counter-punches, but got OUTGOING FIRE the way Roy Jones Jr. used to give guys a HELLUVA lot of outgoing for coming in.

i have been watching a lot of lomachenko fights myself. a lot of amateur lomachenko fights. lomachenko does this thing where he slips inside on a guy. thats how he sets everything up. looks like this.



the inside slip is a pretty unique move in boxing in that it has multiple functions. you can do a lot of different things with the motion.

you can slip punches with it like this.



and you can slip as you counter in one smooth motion like this.



you can steal left hands off of it like this.



which also means that just showing it to a guy becomes a feint like this.



lomachenko does it all the time and since it has a series of different functions it creates a series of different problems for the guy he is showing it to. but the real reason i think he does it, above all that is, is he wants to use it as a way to make you think he is pressing up closer to you, to try to get you to think he is coming inside, so you start to cover up. what lomachenko wants you to be, above all, is a guy who will stand still and just cover up for him. thats because when he can get you standing still and covering up, then he can start to throw all those little pity pat punches with nothing on them. those big flashy combinations. now because he is flooding you with punches, he has you covering up even more. he is trying to get you covering up so much, that you start to go into a purely defensive state. now youre out the fight. he gets to throw punches. you dont. so he wins the fight. you lose. and thats it.

thats a style that is definitely designed to work the way its supposed to. i can appreciate the way he engineered this whole thing together. i can understand why it was so effective in the amateurs. and when you see him dominate guys in the pros, its always that same one sided, i get to throw a lot of punches and you dont, sort of way.

so heres the thing. if he has a style that he has put together to try to trick guys into staying in a defensive mode for him, but the guy refuses to play his little game and just stand there covering up, all the sudden he is in a real fight. now lets say he is in there with a guy who is willing to punch with him. if you can punch i can punch. lets say hes a guy who isnt just trying to load up on one big shot like nicholas walters, or like jason sosa. a sort of guy who is just willing to let his hands go. lets call this guy orlando salido. and maybe you can understand why lomachenko was reaching out to grab and hold salido whenever he got close so much in that fight and why he was never able to get going at all against him as a result of all that holding he was doing. since he couldnt get orlando salido to fight his fight he actually was being forced to fight an honest fight. now imagine that, a boxer actually forcing another boxer to fight an honest fight. well he didnt seem to really want to do that and he held all night.

theres another guy who i think gives him a lot of problems. that would be mikey garcia. the reason being is, he can move his feet. he wont just stand there covering up with his hands glued to his head. he can move his feet and its hard to put combinations together on a non stationary target. so that'll make lomachenko's punch output drop a lot lower than it has been in some of his last fights. so it'll be hard to win rounds. also garcia can work a steady jab, and that was always the best engineered sort of scheme so to speak to me. that is, move your feet so he cant hit you, work your jab so he cant out work you. you win. he loses. thats it.

sure would be nice to see those two go at it, to see whose theory about boxing is really the right one. i dont think its lomachenko.