Recent signing of lomachenko - walters fight had me wondering. Both GGG and lomachenko are few of highest pedigree amateurs coming out from Eastern Europe. While I am a big fan of GGG, to have such a rosters for someone who only have seven pro fights, to me lomachenko is epitome of dare to be Great type of fighter.
Yes. Loma is quite unique btw, the way he keeps moving up looking for challenging opponents. I can't think of one other fighter who is showing the same "dare to be great" attitude.
What Lomachenko is doing is rather amazing. But lets add a littler perspective here. He made his debut in his mid 20's, after a long amateur career. Most prospects entering the game are often around the age of 20, with not as many amateur fights. There's a reason they build of these youngsters at a particular pace. So it's a little different with Loma. But he's amazing, and deserves huge props for his ambitious start. But he is a different animal than your typical pro entrant.
Plus Loma actually has a promoter who attempts to and gets him title fights, unlike UBP who intentionally kept GGG as an undercard fighter and would not let him near their cash cow Sturm and told him flat out they would never let him come over and fight Pavlik. GGG had to sue UBP in a German high court and was eventually given his freedom. Makes a huge difference having a promoter working for instead of against you.
Lemieux and Murray are better. I doubt Walters does anything special after this. His win over Donaire and his high knockout rate are his only selling points. Donaire was smaller and washed up, and Walters is in a higher weight class now where he can't beat up on little guys. I think this will probably be the last we ever hear of Walters.
Walters is pretty dangerous. He's also a bigger guy. Think Mayweather vs Corrales. Gary Russell is a better win that anything on GGG's resume and it may prove to be by a significant margin as Gary Russell is extremely talented.
Please, Walters is a much better fighter than Murray or Lemieux. If Loma beats him it easily eclipses any GGG win.
The win over a faded Donaire and the fashion in which it was done is better than anything Murray has done and certainly Lemieux. Lemieux was knocked out by an old Rubio and handily outboxed by Acline. After Accline he was matched carefully against fighters who lacked movement and control of distance so he could get a decent payday against GGG. Martin Murrays couldn't beat a shot Martinez who was blown out by Cotto who was chased out of JMW by Austin Trout. He then moved up to SMW and could not beat a shot to hell Abraham who is nowhere near the level of a faded Donaire.