Let me start by saying this post has nothing todo with Loma being anything less than a great fighter.... he’s still top 2. I hustled noticed that no one is giving Pedraza credit for making Loma look human. When asked post fight about his shoulder ... Lomachenko said it felt 100 percent. In the post fight he also gave credit to Pedraza jab. Let’s explore that Pedraza popped, probed , fainted the jab all night... while walking forward. The only time his jab got countered for the most part is when Pedraza went straight back. After making that mistake he would readjust but never stopped fainting and throwing the jab He also used an Andre Ward tactic that Ward uses when fighting southpaws: Jab at the southpaws lead hand to disrupt his offense and to control distance , and since Pedraza is the longer rangier fighter... he maintained a safe distance for the majority of the fight just by tapping Loma’s lead hand and throwing faints( at least when compared to Lomas previous opponents) Since Pedraza kept the distance with the Jab , he was able to prevent Loma from getting his right foot in position to land a hook. If he saw it coming he would just turn with Loma . If Loma beat him to the spot Pedraza would throw a hook to the body, which happens to be the perfect counter to the right hook Habits: Pedraza played the numbers. He knew that Loma leans to the right 70 percent of the time so he threw his right hand to the position he expected Loma to lean to. Even after Loma adjusted Slipped the right hand. Pedraza just adjusted how he threw it. ..... Also ...Pedraza stayed away from throwing the left hook. In U.S boxing you’re taught to throw a hook after a right hand, so you can put yourself back in position , and on balance. Throwing a left hook against Loma is a NO NO because he will counter it with a shorter, crispier right hook. What Pedraza did instead was follow up the right hand with a jab, ... using the jab to get him back in position and to offset any counter Loma had coming I could go on for days... but people are discounting Pedraza efforts in this fight! Between the body work, head movement and his conditioning he managed to look good on there. I had him winning only two rounds, but he had 5 rounds where he lost by 2-3 punches This fighting tactic doesn’t transfer over to Mikey or Tank because they don’t throw enough punches or probe enough. The last two guys to go the distance with Loma both let their hands go and didn’t use the high guard defense.... because that when Loma picks you a part
good write up and analysis. mikey is going stick out his jab to control lomas advance, and to blind him. he stiff arms with his jab and refs allow him to do it, several times ive thought he should be warned for it. lomas short arms prevent him from countering that glove on his forehead without going around it from a blind spot. mikey usually times the right depending on how you choose to get out from behind that stiff arm.
