Pound for pound: Does Vasiliy Lomachenko hold his place on the Boxing Junkie list?

Vasiliy Lomachenko got the job done during Saturday’s game against Jamaine Ortiz in New York City.

The 34-year-old former weightlifter got off to a slow start but rose to drag his capable opponent away in the second half of the bout and secured a clear decision after a 10-month hiatus, the result of the fight. in the homeland of Ukraine.

Was it a dominant performance? No. Is that a solid win? Sure.

The question now is whether he should keep his No. 8 spot on the Boxing Junkie pound list following the performance he’s been in. The answer is, “no”.

We believe him when he says he needs more time in the gym to be in top form for his next bout, possibly against undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney early in the year. after. Rust can be a factor, although many fighters have gone 10 months without a fight. And, of course, Ortiz was a great fighter.

That said, we can only judge Lomachenko on his most recent performance in which he looked very similar overall. That version of Lomachenko is not the Top 10 pound-for-pounder.

Thus, he has dropped to 11th place on the list, behind the new No. 8 is Juan Francisco Estrada, No. 9 Jermell Charlo and No. 10 Gervonta Davis.

Of course, Lomachenko will have his weight fate if he fights Haney, who is 15th at the moment but climbs up really fast. A win over a hot young star will almost certainly get him back on the list.

Keep stable.

Here’s what the current list looks like:

JUNKIE BOX
POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Terence Crawford – Scheduled to defend the WBO welterweight title against David Avanesyan on December 10 in Omaha, Nebraska.
2. Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to meet Paul Butler for the undisputed bantamweight title on December 13 in Tokyo.
3. Oleksandr Usyk – No scheduled combat.
4. Errol Spence Jr. – No scheduled combat.
5. Tyson Fury – Scheduled to defend his WBC title against Derek Chisora ​​on December 3 in London.
6. Dmitry Bivol – Scheduled to defend his WBA light heavyweight title against Gilberto Ramirez on November 5 in the United Arab Emirates.
7. Canelo Alvarez– No scheduled combat.
8. Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to face Roman Gonzalez on December 3. Estrada is the WBC bantamweight “franchise champion”.
9. Jermell Charlo – It is reported that an agreement has been reached to defend his undisputed junior middleweight championship against Tim Tszyu on January 28 but no official announcement has been made.
10. Gervonta Davis – Reportedly in talks to meet Ryan Garcia in a 136-pound fight. No date has been mentioned.
11. Vasiliy Lomachenko – No scheduled combat.
12. Artur Betterbiev – Reportedly targeting January 28 in London for scheduled defense of his three-belt light heavyweight title against Anthony Yarde, who is expected to face Stefani Koykov in a make up match November 19
13. Shakur Stevenson – No scheduled combat.
14. Roman Gonzalez – Expected to face WBC bantamweight “franchise champion” Juan Francisco Estrada on December 3.
15. Devin Haney – No scheduled combat.

Mention of honor (alphabetically): David Benavidez (no scheduled combat); Jermall Charlo (no scheduled combat); Stephen Fulton Jr. (no scheduled combat); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to face Joshua Franco in a children’s bantamweight title match on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo); Josh Taylor (scheduled to defend her junior WBO welterweight title in a rematch against Jack Catterall on February 4 in Glasgow, Scotland).