F--- boxing

I'd certainly make Loma stew about it for a few months.

But there's no real upside for Lopez to simply work his way down through lower-ranked lightweights, either. Maybe he fights Haney or Campbell or Garcia before he circles back to Loma. But those aren't marquee paydays necessarily, and those guys can fight.

He's got a big frame, so maybe he goes up to 140 to see how it feels.

He's so young, he can do whatever he wants. Four belts. Top of the world.

The bigger question is, what the hell does Loma do now?

 

The mystical gifts and inexorable physics of money will exert themselves in due course and a match will be made.

 

Loma can do what he wants. Who knows, maybe he finds a motivation that he hasn’t had in years after this bout and comes back and destroys Lopez. I still think Loma is the better boxer between the two and it’s not all that close.

 

This ties into the point I made earlier about Hagler-Leonard. Hagler had had one fight in two years when he fought Leonard. One of the greatest southpaws of all time, for some reason he started fighting orthodox and did little for the first four rounds but follow Leonard around. Aside from a few spurts over the rest of the fight, he could never really get the engine started.

Loma is one of the most cerebral fighters I have ever watched. But he didn't really need half a fight to figure out Lopez. it was apparent as early as the first minute of the fight that this was probably not what he had planned for.

 

True.

But who does he fight while he waits for Lopez? What was the cost of his arrogance in not including a rematch clause? He's cleaned out the division, and unlike Lopez isn't necessarily a good bet in a higher weight class. He's a draw, certainly, but against whom?

Much more importantly, what damage has he done to the myth of his own invincibility?

 

All great questions - hopefully we get some of those answers sooner rather than later.

 

Loma's shoulder.

Vasiliy Lomachenko undergoes shoulder surgery after losing lightweight titles to Teofimo Lopez



Agree with Dan here. If it's that bad, call off the fight.

If it's not that bad, you still lost.

Again, whither Loma now that the mystique has flown?

 

There was no sign or hint of any injury or pain during the fight from Lomachenko. This injury could be damage control to protect his ego. Lopez pysched Loma out BEFORE the fight during the hype months with his confidence. Loma could not understand how and why this punk was so confident to beat him. That disconcerts a fighter. It's happened before - Fury's confidence psyched out Wladimir Klitschko. Tarver's confidence psyched out Roy Jones. Ali's confidence spooked Foreman. We could go on and on. Loma was very very careful for the first five rounds, clearly unsettled by Lopez confidence and his big range height and reach and of course his brutal knockout power. That was the injury - apprehension and hesitation and self doubt of his own ego to fight Lopez the way he wanted to fight him. Lopez was smart and used his advantages to control Loma and the fight. Clear win for Loma. Great chess match battle. Most every boxer, even the greats, concoct fake excuses AFTER they lose to protect their egos. Loma pride just can't admit it that Lopez was the better man.

 

Shoulder injury that showed not a hint or trace of any pain during the fight = fake injury.

 

Loma should not lose any value from this loss. He easily could have mayweathered (ducked) Lopez and made him wait 2 more years. But Loma fought this young confident terror in his prime and he only lost a pretty close decision, pay no attention to those two bad scorecards. I think Loma's value should go up. He was the smaller man in the wrong weight class against a young champ who is on his way to greatness. Leonard didn't lose value by losing to Duran. Frazier didn't lost value by losing to Ali or Foreman. Both fighters were impressive for different reasons.

 

It's very possible Hagler was bonused to throw the fight to Leonard. It made no sense to try to box Leonard righty instead of from his more complicated and effective lefty stance. Remember, Leonard teased Hagler for two years before finally agreeing to terms, terms of which he demanded and got. Hagler was making less than a million a fight back then and the Leonard fight gave him about $15m. Then Hagler did not demand a rematch, he just quit the sport. Many signs point to this fight being a possible inside job for Leonard. Leonard had the leverage to call the shots. He was the A side draw, not Hagler. Suspect fight.

 

He had surgery on it a year or two ago.