He ran away and wouldnt throw punches. Because Lopez is a naturally bigger and stronger man. Loma threw the fight because he was afraid of taking a nap. At least when Brook fought GGG he at least tried to win the fight and went out on his shield. Loma just gave up against a bigger man.
Good point, and I don't think anyone would have criticized Lomachenko that much for being cautious for the first round or even a couple of the early rounds and slowly working his way into the match. But he pretty much wasn't doing anything for about half the match, that's a sign of a fighter not ready to fight.
Loma let Lopez press the action in the first half of the fight was Loma's game plan. He figured out that Lopez would be exhausted in the second half of the fight then he would start to tear him apart in the late rounds. We could see that Loma started to fight back Lopez in round 7, but his game plan didn't work well since Lopez could bang with Loma throughout the fight even in the last round. So, my point is Loma got a wrong game plan. It wasn't Loma didn't try to beat Lopez as the OP stated.
Knowing what we know now about the injury, his gameplan was obviously influenced by the injury he had more than anything else. He fought scared, scared of Lopez, scared of the surgery he knew he was going to have right after the match, scared of throwing to make the injury worse and make the surgery more complicated. Lomachenko should not have been fighting. Hiding the injury was dumb, because now he embarrassed himself and lost to a guy that probably will never give him a rematch. It would have been better to cancel the match then to jeopardize the rest of his career by fighting with an injury that needed surgery. By fighting and not throwing punches for the first half of the match, he got beat up, it affected his stock as a fighter.
If the injury was so serious as to potentially jeopardise the rest of his career or limit his offense against his most dangerous opponent to date, there’s no way the fight would have gone ahead. His gameplan and lack of output was influenced by the power, speed and skill of Lopez, and the desire to not be knocked out. After Lopez started to gas and the sting went out of his own work, Loma looked comfortable fully committing to hard shots in bunches.
I don't know what he was doing or thinking for the first 6 rounds, but he did take control in the rounds 7-11, so clearly he was not afraid of Lopez then . Lopez won the 12th. Props for Lomo for taking this fight. He didnt have to move up in weight and fight what looks like the next top lightweight for years, who was much younger, and had the type of stye to give him trouble.
No, he went in to the fire for many rounds in the second half, that's a long time to be there. Something obviously went wrong in their tactics and he was too passive for half the fight for whatever reason, but the idea he didn't adjust is idiotic because he clearly changed his approach and became more aggressive, but it wasn't enough. He also risked getting KO'd in the 12th to try to win. As for Brook, he didn't try to brawl GGG, GGG turned it into a brawl. GGG was pressing forward relentlessly after the early rounds and then Brook was trying to get out of the kitchen. He was on his bike when the fight was stopped. Also, it's very easy to appear to be fearless, going up to fight GGG, when you have a sneaky little agreement with your coaches that they'll throw the towel in as soon as you get in trouble. That's the very opposite of a warrior mentality. It was shifty as hell considering people paid for the fight in good faith. Notice the ref let the fight go on because Brook hadn't even been put down yet. He absolutely took the easy way out of that fight with the preset agreement to save him prematurely. Besides, Brook is actually close to GGG's size because GGG is not a big MW and Brook drained big for 147 and then bulked big for the GGG fight. They are more like one division apart, clearly visibly closer than Loma/Lopez.
True, Imagine if Canelo or Mayweather would've ran and hide like that? All the forum would've been calling them chickens or cowards
