Vasiliy Lomachenko turns professional in 2009. Educate me...

He ends up greater, no question about it. Loma has really shot himself in the foot with some of his career choices. Not only did he turn pro late, but he was also very inactive throughout his career, and was keen on fighting lesser opponents. Some people here really think that Loma always fought killers and was never against someone that didn't deserve it, that couldn't be futher from the truth.

His 126 title reign was against atrocious opposition, not a single one of those fighters were ranked. He wasted a lot of precious time between his fights with Teo and Haney, fighting guys like Nakatani and Ortiz, when he could have easily made fights with Cruz or Zepeda, possibly maybe even Garcia or Haney earlier. Let's not pretend that other guys like Martinez, Sosa and Marriaga were anything other than average either. Loma's best opponents (if we don't include Haney) are an older and blown up Rigo, Walters, Linares, Russell and Kambosos. Good, but hardly the stuff of legends.

4 extra years would have really helped him be what some here think he already is. But what Loma really needed most in his career is activity. Nothing is better for improving your craft than simply doing it at the highest level, and fighting once or twice a year is just not cutting it. It'd be fine fighting guys like Ortiz and Nakatani if he would also have another 2 fights the same year against guys ranked in the top 5. But that was simply not the case, and it's why he can very reasonably be excluded from discussions about being the greatest fighter of his era.

 

Probably wouldn’t be rushed nearly as much and would be able to get used to pro boxing pretty quickly and smoothly. He fights Salido probably about 15 fights in and knocks him the **** out brutally. That’s after Loma’s management agrees on a competent ref that actually penalized Salido after the first couple of low blows. In turn… Salido has to actually BOX to avoid a DQ loss and gets dealt with.

I actually think there’s a good chance Loma stays undefeated and sets the 135 unified title defenses record. And No… Lopez is NOT beating a professional ranks seasoned and fully healthy Loma Haney would have to earn his shot and would not even think about playing A-side. In turn… OFFICIALLY Loses badly on the cards with better judges.

 

Ends up as an ATG, possibly even top 10 all time. Takes his early career slower and has more lower level fights to build experience in the pro ranks and then probably unifies a couple of weight classes on the way up. Suspect he beats Haney, Salido and Lopez pretty comfortably.

But unfortunately this is a hypothetical and we can only judge the guy on what we have actually witnessed.

 

he has time to cement a legacy at 130 as an atg, then moves to 135 to finish off his career in similar manner as what we are seeing now.

 

His career wouldn't have been much different from what it is now. Loma, though talented, built his career up by fighting guys much smaller than him. Guys like Rigo had no business at 130 lbs vs Loma at all, let alone for a title. That "No Mas Chenko" reign was pushed beyond reality. Notice it all goes away, not when the competition rose, just when the guys were closer to his actual size.

He's a talented fighter, but he was promoted as the best in the world above guys like Crawford, Canelo, GGG, and others who were fighting guys their own size and dominating. I don't want to make it seem like he's fought no one and/or he doesn't have the power/skill to do damage vs career 130/35'ers but the No Mas nonsense were against guys waaaay too damage small to effect Loma with their offense that they compete with at smaller divisions.

Once he got to 135 there were some clear names he should have been in the ring with which we have yet to see him do. At 36, it's not the end of the road, so maybe he can still solidify his name in the discussion.

 

Are you stupid? He dominated Gary Russel jr for the title. People weren’t exactly lining up to fight him.

 

Canelo was the catchweight king who refused to fight Golovkin despite being the same size.

Crawford rehydrated 20 lbs at LW and he was huge at 140.

Only GGG is normal size for his class. Lomachenko is the same size as Marlon Tapales.

 

For Loma it would have been definitely better to turn pro 4 years earlier. He wasted another 4 years to dominate amateur boxing.

As for his pro career.

Loma wanted to win the title in his 2nd fight. But Salido as an opponent was a clear mistake. Not only that Salido cheated on scales and low-blowed Loma in the ring, but he was clearly the harder opponent than Eugeny Gradovich (then an IBF World Feather champ). Loma would have dominated and stopped Gradovich for sure and would've won IBF title in his 2nd pro fight. That's TOP Rank fault.

As for his next opponents, it's again question to his management. There were some world class opponents as well as some mediocre. Loma just accepted those fights and fought opponents who were put in front of him.

TOP Rank surely did a better job on some of their other stars (a career path and judges' decisions in some close fights).

I actually think Usyk's K2 team was always more professional and did a better job than TOP Rank in Loma's case.

 

And that changes the fact that his title reign was terrible at 126, how ?

 

Well for one he just misses out on fighting Pacquiao, Marquez, at Featherweight which would be good for him. The other notable fighters at that time at Featherweight are Chris John, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Juan Manuel Lopez, and a younger Orlando Salido would all be interesting fights. Whilst i would favour Loma in these fights especially vs Salido with a fair referee and if they're actually the same weight......they would still be tough fights for Loma and certainly not easy fights for him.

If he moves up to Super Featherweight there is no real big names for him, if he moves up to Lightweight he would probably miss out on Marquez, Crawford.

So all in all i don't see his career being that much different in all honesty i certainly don't think he had the big named opponents to become an ATG.

 

11 past, current or future champs in 18 wins

Cope

 

His reign? Lol. He barely fought at 126.

 

Pretty much this.
And by the time he gets a title shot, he will have built up a decent fanbase. Meaning he wouldn´t have to jump through weight classes to get meaningful fights.