Has Lomachenko's occasional passiveness cost him to underachieve as a pro?

[-Kev-]

Loma is the best fighter we have today.
In order to have everyone liking him I sent him a letter and told him to get some black shoe cream, I am sure he will be NSB's darling after that.

Anyway, Loma to become undisputed soon.

That would be strange. If you are alluding to Lomachenko needing to be black to be loved then you have an extremely warped point of view on what race gets the most hate. By far, black fighters get the most hate and it is not even close. Anywhere. NSB or Newspapers from the 1950s. Today and historically. Clearly...I mean clearly, very clearly, you are obviously not black. So, of course, you would not know, or are in denial. But historically, all time, and today still, black fighters absolutely get the most hate.

When you talk about the Lomachenko hate and try to talk about he needs to be black to get love, just remember black fighters in boxing were getting death threats. they were actually wanted dead. So remember that. The white fans wanted them lynched. So, that's pretty silly.

The Lomachenko hate is just as bad as the Gervonta Davis hate. Terence Crawford is about as unpopular as Lomachenko. Nobody cares about Crawford. Nobody likes Tank. Nobody likes Wilder. Probably very few Americans will be rooting for the American, Marcus Browne, vs the Russian, Artur Beterbiev.

So it's strange to see this, "Lomachenko needs to be black". Downright silly. Black fighters are not loved in boxing. There is not a black boxer in history who will ever be as loved by Americans as Rocky Marciano. Yeah, "Ali doe". Ali was hated to death by Americans, when he was active. Ali was called all types of names, imprisoned, threatened, abused. Like Jack Johnson, some white folks wanted that dude dead. They wished he rot in prison. An American hero, treated like crap. With his deteriorating health, the classless and heartless American people grew a bit of love for him after the fact. Their little cold racist hearts grew to like Ali a bit, show him, some respect and admiration afterward.

No need to make it about race. I mean everyone saw Lomachenko whoop Russell Jr, Rigondeaux, Walters, and Commey. Everyone saw Mayweather protect Tank from Lomachenko when Lomachenko called him out. So I am not sure why there is a need to feel insecure about Lomachenko's race. Or care about his skin color.

You should have also sent a letter to Ali and told him to get some skin bleach.

[Dr. Seuss]

Yup, I think he has a lot to blame for himself by playing it too safe on occasion. For example in the last round against Haney.

[Zaroku]

In Lomachenko's first title fight vs Salido, Salido missed weight coming in at 129lbs for a 126lb fight with no attempt to shed any of it. To add insult to injury, not only was Salido 147lbs in the ring vs 135lb Lomachenko, but he also hit Loma with blatant low-blows.

Despite all of this, Salido managed to just barely win a decision. It was not a robbery, but Salido did not exactly win "fair and square" at all. It's one of those fights that you look at and can say Salido did not deserve a penny. His purse should have been given to Lomachenko. It would have served him right and anyone else who wants to come in at whatever weight they want, regardless of contract. Fighters who miss weight like that, do not deserve a paycheck. He only missed weight because the penalty was a slap on the wrist.

Anyway, to get to the point, here are three times Lomachenko was extremely passive and sabotaged his own win/TKO:

1. Lomachenko was very passive about the low blows, he did not show a mean streak at all. He was blatantly and constantly fouled and did nothing about it. Yes, he almost beat Salido anyway, but he didn't. His passiveness cost him that fight. He was getting zero help from the ref, so he should have done right back to Salido if the ref was allowing it.

2. Versus Teofimo Lopez, Lomachenko essentially gave the first half of the fight to Lopez. He was being very passive, allowing Lopez to win at the very least the first 5 rounds of the first half of the fight. This left Lopez to need to win at least only 2 more rounds, which he did. No excuses. I thought Lomachenko would school Lopez. He did not, he was way too passive. It was clear when Lomachenko let his hands go, he would batter Lopez. He caught Lopez when ever he threw combinations. The only time he had a hard time landing clean was when he would to pot shot Lopez. His handspeed shined during combination punches, not during potshotting. Lopez had the upper hand in single shots, speed for speed and power for power. Lopez was clearly, very visibly, overwhelmed with Lomachenko's power shots when Loma swarmed him. Loma just did not do enough of that.

3. Versus Commey, he won, so no one cares but when Lomachenko had a clearly wounded Commey, instead of finishing him, he stopped the fight himself to look at Commey's corner, tell them to stop the fight, TWICE. In total, Lomachenko wasted 15 seconds in round 7 (not including the 8 count) by talking to Commey's corner when he hurt him twice. That literally does nothing for Lomachenko, being all nice and passive. It's detrimental. This guy had a guy he could've KO'ed and instead allowed him to recover and basically go 12 rounds.

At 33, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I do not think Lomachenko will ever get over his passiveness. He is who he is. I have never seen someone so good, so much superior than most of his opponents, literally allowing a top fighter he is facing, to have a chance. Lomachenko li-ter-a-lly allowed Commey to survive. You hear boxers full of sh/t, talking about they wanted to go 12 and they could have ended the fight sooner, and that they wanted to get the rounds in for their own benefit. But everyone knows they are lying and everyone saw the 12 round UD winner struggling to take out the opponent he supposedly could have taken out. In this instance Lomachenko actually did that. He really let him go.

Lomachenko is a great fighter and I think he deserves to go into the IBHOF just for his two Gold medals, his 396-1 amatuer career, and his accomplishments in the pros in just 18 fights. In Lomachenko's 18 pro fights, he has fought more top 10 fighters than, for example someone like Chris John. Lomachenko can absolutely have a shiny resume with a big number in the win column like Mayweather, Pacquiao and Canelo. He could have been 60-2 right now if he wanted, all he had to do was just pad his resume with 10 fights in 2014 and another 10 fights in 2015, like most other boxers, and then go from there and lower it to the very infamous and highly popular 2-3 fights per year formula that everyone uses.

Rant over.

tl;dr: Lomachenko is an amazing fighter, I love his fights, but he's too passive when he needs to be more aggressive instead. He is missing that mean streak that the best fighters of the past 20 years had. He is still great, still a future HOF'er in my eyes. It is just frustrating to know a fighter like him could obviously be so much more if he was a bit more mean in there. I say that as a fan. Lomachenko is not brittle handed like Mayweather, or has messed up hands/wrists like Mayweather, Calzaghe, or Malignaggi. He could actually end fights. It is up to him basically. Very great, but very weird fighter.

Salido did punch him in the nads and head butted him.

Loma is a great boxer, in the Olympics!

Prize Fighting ???

[Gamer30168]

I barely remember Loma even throwing a punch during the first 4 rounds in his fight against Teofimo so yeah I would say his passiveness definitely cost him that fight. I couldn't tell if was trying rope-a-dope or what

[eco1]

Andre Ward is pure salt on commentary last night lol

Andre "The Gift" Ward?

[eco1]

We as humans need to understand something, fluke's happen and I see to guys who were not honorable enough to grant a rematch (It did not have to be in a contract, that is call class or no class) and the reason those were never granted is because they know they would loose the fight in a rematch so doing what a coward does was the only way to go down in history telling that story about the night you won a fight against Loma.

That is why Haney to me is a coward too (daddy daddy, he's got me figured out) F Haney who lost that fight and was given a gift and now is running like the prior 2.

[Wamb]

Underachieve? Lmfao. Dude was number 1 p4p and his only real loss was due to injury. First ballot hof lock. Haters gonna hate.

[PerfectJab]

Lomachenko fights in spurts, which costs himself rounds. He is indeed passive a lot of times.
Taking that 12th round off... I still find it hard to believe.
You're the challenger, you're fighting in someone's else backyard, the opponent face is unmarked, no knockdown or standing 8 count, no pummeling him all over the ring and....you take the last round off. I think that was incredible amateurish.
I like for instance how Bivol ended his last rounds both against both Canelo and Ramirez, very determined. That's how you close the show and take away any doubt.

Btw Lomachenko didn't want to hurt Commey because he liked him
There is footage, when he was asked (by the promoter I think, don't remember) when they were waiting for the result "why didn't you finish him" and Lomachenko answered "he is a good guy". Everybody seems to like Commey, even the insufferable Teofimo Lopez jr ánd Sr....