Vasiliy Lomachenko got the job done against Jamaine Ortiz on Saturday in New York City.
The 34-year-old former pound-for-pound king got off to a slow start but rallied to pull away from his capable opponent in the second half of the fight and win a clear decision after a 10-month hiatus from the sport, the result of the war in his native Ukraine.
Was it a dominating performance? No. Was it a solid victory? Absolutely.
The question now is whether he should hold onto his No. 8 position on Boxing Junkie’s the pound-for-pound list after the performance he turned in. The answer is, “no”.
We believe him when he says that he needs more time in the gym to be at his best for his next fight, which could come against undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney early next year. Rust could’ve been a factor, although many fighters go 10 months without fighting. And, of course, Ortiz is a good fighter.
That said, we can only judge Lomachenko on his latest performance, in which he looked so-so overall. That version of Lomachenko isn’t a Top 10 pound-for-pounder.
Thus, he dropped to No. 11 on the list, behind new No. 8, Juan Francisco Estrada, No. 9 Jermell Charlo and No. 10 Gervonta Davis.
Of course, Lomachenko would have his pound-for-pound fate in his own hands if he gets the fight with Haney, who is No. 15 at the moment but climbing quickly. A victory over a hot young star almost certainly would allow him to bounce back up the list.
Stay tuned.
Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – Scheduled to defend his WBO welterweight title against David Avanesyan on Dec. 10 in Omaha, Nebraska.
- Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to meet Paul Butler for the undisputed bantamweight championship on Dec. 13 in Tokyo.
- Oleksandr Usyk – No fight scheduled.
- Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
- Tyson Fury – Scheduled to defend his WBC title against Derek Chisora on Dec. 3 in London.
- Dmitry Bivol – Scheduled to defend his WBA light heavyweight title against Gilberto Ramirez on Nov. 5 in the United Arab Emirates.
- Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to face Roman Gonzalez on Dec. 3. Estrada is the WBC’s junior bantamweight “franchise champion”.
- Jermell Charlo – Reportedly has reached an agreement to defend his undisputed junior middleweight championship against Tim Tszyu on Jan. 28 but no official announcement has been made.
- Gervonta Davis – Reportedly in talks to meet Ryan Garcia in a 136-pound catch weight fight. No date has been mentioned.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
- Artur Beterbiev – Reportedly targeting Jan. 28 in London for his rescheduled three-belt light heavyweight title defense against Anthony Yarde, who is scheduled to face Stefani Koykov in a tune-up fight on Nov. 19.
- Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
- Roman Gonzalez – Scheduled to face WBC junior bantamweight “franchise champion” Juan Francisco Estrada on Dec. 3.
- Devin Haney – No fight scheduled.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (no fight scheduled); Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Stephen Fulton Jr. (no fight scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to face Joshua Franco in a junior bantamweight title-unification bout on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo); Josh Taylor (scheduled to defend his WBO junior welterweight title in a rematch with Jack Catterall on Feb. 4 in Glasgow, Scotland).
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