How do you rate Lomachenko's defense?

his defence is good, but his offence is so high pace that he spends lots of time in the opponents punch range. he can slip and block most punches from average fighters, but the top dogs are going to catch him, repeatedly. as the guys get bigger, the area that their punches can reach becomes larger, which forces loma to have to cover more ground when darting in and out of range. for example, loma used to be able to step out of range with a half step to avoid a long hook, now those hooks are landing, as linares proved. lomas tight guard used to be enough against smaller guys who couldnt reach around it, but these guys are able to punch around his guard.
another thing that loma has had to adjust, is his straight in attacks that were too fast for small guys who were too close to move a half step back in time to meet loma coming in. these bigger guys are able to get that half step because loma is having to start his rush from further out, because of their longer reach. and reach isnt just a matter of long arms, pushing forward on long legs when you punch will increase your reach substantially, so the couple of inches extra you see on paper, will translate to 7-8 inches difference in practice.
loma was getting knocked around off balance by linares punches, mikey hits much harder and his 1-2 has broken through every defensive stance he has faced. mikey is fast enough to see loma start his rush, take a half step back and meet him with a strong 1-2 that will drop him or throw him off balance enough that his punches will have little power.
loma will have to fight a perfect fight to beat a guy the size and skill of mikey, not because mikey is so much bigger than loma, but because mikey is so much bigger than the guys loma has been toying with.

 

It's good, not excellent....but you can't really be excellent defensively unless you're a pretty defensive fighter, which he isn't

 

He stood toe-to-toe with Linares for a lot of the fight and used aggressive offensive movements as his defense so that he could get his shots off. He didn't really want to be at the end of Linares' punches on the outside as that is Linares' bread and butter. Loma basically threw caution to the wind in certain respects and he probably knew he was going to get hit more but that is what he had to do to win this particular matchup. Linares is an excellent boxer on the outside so Loma had to get close enough to do damage which obviously opened him up more to counter shots.

 

If he decide to play hide and seek like Mayweather i should imagine it would be a lot better, instead of back peddling though he goes ahead and dominates fights. Completely different mind and skill set.

 

I agree with the A / A- rating. His defense is top notch, but still often keeps him in proper countering position. It's a combination of slipping movements, guard blocking, and using his legs.

 

His defense is A. He can stay in the pocket better than anyone in boxing right now. He is the smaller guy against Linares and was giving up 3 inches in reach. If he stayed on the outside, it would have favored Linares' height and reach.

Naturally, he's an offensive fighter with a masterful pocket defense. He does get overconfident every now and then and that sometimes leads to recklessness. The knock down was a result of that...not because of his defense, but his recklessness.

 

Solid B. Not the greatest, not the worst I've seen.

 

When you're as offensive as Lomachenko there are going to be the occasional gaps, but it's pretty good... He had a momentary lapse against Linares and ran right into a well timed shot.

 

C minus at best. F at worst.

 

He got hit a lot in that fight before Rigo and complained about his own defense, which he acknowledged on video is not really good.
I have to commend him for knowing his own flaws and trying to improve. Now lets make Lomachenko vs Broner.
I wanna see Broner get worked for 36 minutes again, but this time his opponent won't gas out.

 

Good..

 

He is an offensive minded fighter who throws a lot of punches and takes risks. Obviously he will get hit. He has a very good defense if you compare him to other offensive fighters.

 

Very good to great.
If the number of punches he landed is a + and the number of punches landed on him is a -,
His plus number will be really high.

 

This was said about Manny Pacquiao up until KO6.
It was a Pac-Man offensive praise fest with the Reverend Jim Lampley jizzing his trousers going BAM, BAM, BAM!
Then Marquez ended that offensive fighter ****. Pacquiao became the most defensive fighter after Floyd. Check the stats if you think I'm bullshitting.
Lomachenko better remember that before he flies too close to the sun.