Lomachenko will make it look easy tonight

Linares is a lot better fighter than people thought. That, together with his size, made it Loma's toughest night out in a long while. He actually looked human for a change. Personally I think this weight class is too big for him.

 

Linares won rd 9.

 

I noticed Linares used his left shoulder quite a bit to try to create distance, while Loma continued countering that action by trying to turn/spin Linares. It seemed like they were doing some high level ****, from a chess-perspective.

The narrative of this fight for me was 4th round about 50 seconds left - Loma kept firing in rapid succession maybe 20 thrown, at that point I knew Linares was out-quicked. If that's a word!

Around 1:30 left in round 6 was the only time I saw Linares rip off his 'patented' combination. Seemed too respectful of Loma's power.

At times they both made each other miss shots by a snot-bubble. End the end it was Loma who had the faster hands, willing to let them go, while Linares seemed a bit weary to take chances. Did he suspect his own chin would fail him?


Jorge Linares is one of those good champions sandwiched in between a great (like LOma) and on the other side his back-to-back losses. Good enough to win several titles, but not good enough to win a definitive fight. Not sure where Linares goes from here.

It's not like father time showed up in the ring last night, rather Lomachenko did.

 

Loma didn't have faster hands. He was just very consistent in his attack.

 

How is the weight class too big for him if he just knocked out arguably the best fighter in it? I do agree that this is probably about his max though.

 

IMO Linares was clearly a lot bigger and that his size and strength were significant factors in making him so competitive.

 

I agree. I just think Loma’s skill and athleticism is enough to overcome it at 135, but he’d probably be in trouble if he goes any higher.

 

True, however I had predicted a competitive fight, so I'm not surprised.

Linares when motivated and switched on has elite skills (although he's not quite as tough as the very best). No surprise a smaller Loma, who is not all that powerful anyway, took a while to get to him, and no surprise that such rounds were competitive as Linares does have the skill to compete at that level.

 

I think he rattled off shots quicker than Linares did..and as a result he was able to be more (consistent) in landing those shots quicker, as you stated.

 

Looking at them both Saturday night I would totally agree..No way can he fill out comfortably to 140, forget Crawford, hes too big

 

He did yeah, noticeably. You knew something was close in the 10th, he was climbing over him.