In his latest column for Boxing Social, Team Lomachenko cornerman Russ Anber gives his insight and analysis of Vasiliy Lomachenko’s defeat against Teofimo Lopez…
The Aftermath:
A few days on and I’m still heartbroken and in a state of shock that Vasiliy Lomachenko lost to Teofimo Lopez on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
I don’t know how Loma is feeling right now about the fight and his performance or what he feels he could or should have done differently, but I know he is disappointed. Winners and champions ALWAYS take defeat hard! As they should!
Loma was the quietest I’ve ever seen him after the fight. He was very sombre, but he conducted himself with class. After we got back to the hotel he and the rest of his team packed up and headed back to California so there was no debrief or discussion the next day as I was staying on in Vegas. I exchanged some texts with Andriy Kolosov, Loma’s sports psychologist, and he told me that Loma will be back and back better and I don’t doubt that, as he is a very mentally strong guy.
Retrospect:
Looking back on the fight and how it went and how the preparations went there are a lot of unanswered questions, there always are when a fighter loses unexpectedly.
Of course, one of the big questions people had was why Loma was so inactive early on compared to usual and that has now been answered with the news that he had a shoulder injury and had to have surgery on Monday. I was completely unaware about this as the fight was going on, so you can imagine my shock when Egis informed me of the surgery.
Aside from the shoulder injury – and injuries happen in boxing, of course – I think size also really played a factor in this fight. There was a massive difference in size between Loma and Lopez. Teofimo is a guy who – by his own admission – entered camp at 160lbs before coming down to 135. In contrast, Loma’s never weighed 160 in his life. I think that makes a difference.
Loma’s battle plan was well thought out. Everyone who watched the fight saw that the second half of the fight was different to the first half. The problem was how inactive Loma was and how little pressure he put Lopez under in the first six rounds. Loma was the guy under pressure when it should have been the other way around.
Of course, the injury partly accounts for that. Maybe Loma was also reluctant to commit because Lopez is dangerous and explosive, particularly early in a fight. I understand that, but in fairness, you have to credit Lopez immensely for neutralising Loma early in the fight and stopping him from doing what he wanted to do. The kid deserves credit.
After round four Loma needed to start getting Lopez out of that comfort zone. It felt to me that as we went into round seven, Lopez had won rounds but hadn’t really inflicted any damage. He’d moved Loma around behind his jab but missed far more than he connected, while Loma with his defence also blocked a lot of shots with his gloves. It was shadow boxing for six rounds.
As the fight went on Loma took more risks. With hindsight those risks needed to be taken earlier and if he’d done so Lopez would have been put under more pressure and would have expended more energy. That was the idea behind the plan of taking Lopez into deep waters.
The Judges’ Cards:
Let’s also get something else straight about the fight; although it did not play an ultimate role in the outcome – the scoring was abysmal. For judge Lederman to score 11-1 in rounds to Lopez – well, I have a really hard time with that. That sort of scorecard drives me crazy. 7-5 to Lopez you can easily justify. Andre Ward had the fight a draw, Terence Crawford scored it a draw and I respect their view a lot more than these official judges who in my mind don’t understand the subtleties of boxing – the sort of small things a great fighter like Loma can do, the quick shots, the pivots, the footwork. They don’t see that. Scorecards of 9-3 and 11-1 to Lopez tell me those judges didn’t understand what they were watching.
Looking at the scorecards you also have to wonder. Everyone was saying after the fight: ‘Loma started too late, if he’d started a round or two earlier he would have won the fight.’ Well based on the scorecards we saw, he wouldn’t have won the fight! And that’s insane! It seems like unless he totally dominated Lopez from beginning to end he wouldn’t have got the decision.
I made a similar point after Loma fought Jorge Linares when he was down on one card and even on another at the time of the stoppage, which was a travesty as it was a fight that Loma was easily winning.
I have been around this game a long time, and I know other veterans will agree with me and understand when I say that great fighters and heavily favoured fighters seem to have to over-achieve in order to get the nod from the judges. Mentally, judges judge them by a higher standard than they do the regular fighter. There is no judge who will EVER admit this, but only God himself could tell me I am wrong. Judges will sometimes have a preconceived notion as to what they expect to see. Especially as they look at past performances in which the fighter was so dominant. When they don’t see that domination, they assume the other guy is winning the rounds.
Before and during the fight I was nervous about the scorecards. After round two Loma’s manager Egis Klimas turned to me and said: ‘You think it’s 1-1?’ And I said, ‘Egis, that round was close, I think Loma won it but let’s assume we are 2-0 down to be on the safe side.’
Lopez, Brilliant:
Of course, amid all the talk of Loma, I have to pay tribute to Lopez. You have to give credit to him for all the times where he was able to prevent Loma from doing what he wanted to do. He reacted to what Loma did very well early on. He remained in the centre ring, he put pressure on and stayed nice and calm. I expected him to try and make it a rough and tough affair and try and engage Loma early. I thought he would try and drain Loma’s energy early. But he didn’t do that. He stayed very calm and sharp. He was like a sharpshooter. He had the cool, calm aura of a sniper, an assassin. He waited while Loma tried to get him to lead and fall in so he could counter but he didn’t do that.
He fought a very smart, calculated and educated fight. Good on him, for a 23-year-old to be able to do that. And in the 12th round – when many people, including myself – felt the fight was still in the balance, Lopez certainly went for it. All the credit in the world to him for that.
The Critics:
While this loss certainly opens the door to the critics and the haters who will now use this as an opportunity to satisfy their narrative, to me, this fight only proves just how great Loma really is. Look at the handicaps he has operated under at lightweight. He’s like a snooker player giving his opponents points before they break off to make the match more even. No one in boxing is doing that now. Roy Jones had to do the same thing by constantly moving up in weight!
Loma has been so dominant and ahead of the rest that the only way competitive fights could be made for him was to handicap him and throw him in against guys who are so much bigger than him. The fact Loma took it to the bigger guy in rounds 8, 9, 10 and 11 speaks to his greatness. Of course, he’s disappointed he lost but he took it to a guy who was an absolute monster.
Plus Loma took shots from this bigger guy and was never wobbled. Loma is the smaller guy and he took those shots. He suffered an injury and kept going and kept trying to find a way to win. He didn’t bail like Guillermo Rigondeaux did against him. He fought through it all and all these things speak volumes about Loma’s guts, skill and bravery.
Lopez is no slouch. He’s an outstanding fighter, the real McCoy, and he’s gonna crush a lot of guys and Loma stayed in there with him the whole way.
Of course, there are some morons out there of course criticising Loma now. Saying he’s been exposed and shit like that. It’s ignorance.
But here’s the truth: Loma is still an exceptional fighter. A great fighter. He’s a 126 lb-er who ran out of opposition so he moved to 130lbs. Everyone ran away, no one wanted to fight him so he moved to 135lbs and fought big guys while placing himself under a massive handicap. No other fighter out there has been taking the risks he took in moving up beyond his natural weight classes.
Mikey Garcia – a wonderful fighter, a great kid – moved up like Loma did and didn’t win a round against Errol Spence. Loma moved up, beat a whole lot of lightweights, won three titles and wasn’t far from beating Lopez.
One thing I’m sure about – I’m very confident Loma can come back strongly from this. His ego is hurt, his shoulder needs to recover. But he’s a very tough guy, mentally and physically. I believe in him and, if he wants to come back, I’m sure he can and I’m sure he will. Call it what you want, but I believe he will once again be the lightweight champion of the world!
Russ Anber was talking to Luke G. Williams.
Main image: Mikey Williams/Top Rank.