When it comes to boxing using lateral movement I do think Usyk is superior when he fights on the backfoot. I don't recall Loma having much success when he danced around boxing at range, he mostly did well when he stayed midrange and came forward. When he tried backing up against Teo he really couldn't do anything and got outworked. The rounds he won convincingly was when he decided to fight more aggressively. If Loma had Usyk's ability to quickly adapt and attack with great urgency he would most definitely have beaten Salido, Teofimo, and Haney with greater ease. Imagine if you combine the best attributes of both Lomachenko and Usyk. Loma's skills, athletic talents, speed, footwork combined with Usyk's intelligence, toughness, tenacity, and aggression. You'd have one Ukrainian powerhouse of a fighter that would be near unbeatable IMO.
It's still Loma. It surely is. Even now he's still #4 on the plus / minus stats despite the fact he's past his prime and is fighting in a division full of giants much/way bigger than him and is often giving away just under six inches in reach in many of his fights up there And all the guys above him are either big for their respective divisions or much bigger than he is for his and he has a much better resume than all of them Loma at 126 and 130 'Following his dazzling performance vs. Nicholas Walters, Vasyl Lomachenko takes over the #1 spot on CompuBox's Plus Minus List with a +20.9 rating. He's the highest rated fighter since Floyd Mayweather (+24.5). Lomachenko also ranks #1 in opponents connect pct. at 16.1%-- .7% higher than master boxer Guillermo Rigondeaux. This stat is so impressive given Loma is the busier offensive fighter (22 of 59.5 per round) to Rigos 11.6 of 49.4 per round. Normally a busier fighter is more susceptible to opponents counters. Mayweather avg'd 16.9 of 38.9 per round. Money opponents landed 18.9%. Lomachenko lands 49.4% of his power punches, 12.1% higher than the CompuBox average. Lomachenko's opponents land just 22.7% of their power punches, 14.6% lower than the CompuBox average.' Usyk was giving away 7'' in reach against Bellya and that was what was making things difficult for Usyk. The way Loma slides in and out of range making you miss with your shots as he's doing so and then still not getting hit as e slides back out after landing with his own shots is a thing of beauty. Reach Loma 65.5'' Walters 73'' Haney 71'' Campbell 71'' Commey 71'' Nakatani 71'' Pedraza 70.5'' Linares 69'' Ortiz 69'' Rodriguez 69'' Lopez 68.5'' Rigo 68'' Kambosos 68'' Sosa 67'' Crolla 67'' Marriaga 67'' Martinez 67'' Koasicha Piriyapinyo Salido 67'' Ramirez 65.5'' Russell Jr. 64'' Usyk 78'' Belly 85'' AJ 82'' Hunter 79.5″ Dubois 78'' Huck 77″ Gassiev 76″ Briedis 75″ Glowacki 75″ Chisora 74'' Bellew 74″ Mchunu 72.5'' Loma has fought a bunch of the fastest fighters in boxing Linares, GRJ, Rigo and Teofimo are some of the fastest fighters in the sport and all possess elite skills and are very athletically gifted. GRJ, Linares and Rigo are/were all top 10 fastest IMO and GRJ is considered the fastest by many. Loma reduced GRJ aka ''the fastest hands in boxing'' to landing only 10% of his punches whilst standing right in front of him and beating him up all night. Haney is supposedly one of the most skilled fighters in the sport with one of the best jabs in the game and obviously he was way way bigger than him and had a huge reach advantage on him. Loma took his jab away immediately and reduced him to only really being able to land to the body Usyk is amazing fighter, a god amongst men, and his skills are sublime but Loma is insanely technically good, insanely defensively responsible for such an aggressive fighter, and unquestionably the most skilled fighter in boxing He gets hit less than backfoot safety-first long reach runners who are bigger or much bigger than their opponents do This content is protected
Dre was a serious operator and his records proves it. Serious ring IQ and ring general. Ask Kovalev whose should he took. Carl Cobra Froch and Kessler genuine tough guys did not want a rematch after beat them up comprehensively. One of the greatest attributes a fighter can have is to literally disarm your opponents.
Like you said, they are both very talented. Lomachenko is incredibly skilled on the front foot and he may even be a bit better than Usyk in that regard and yet he lacks majorly in another department: the back foot. An example of his limits moving backwards is when he fought Devin Haney. Devin would set up the right hand to the body with a double jab every time and Lomachenko would do nothing about it. He jumped away from it and it would land on the same spot almost every time. I think Loma realized this from the beginning but it's almost like he isn't able to do anything about it. He gave Devin so many free punches because of that deficiency in his skill set. Usyk, on the other hand, is incredibly skilled at boxing forwards and backwards. I say that he is somewhat better than Lomachenko but not by a huge amount.
