Canelo is still No.1 and Vasiliy is moving up

Former pound-for-pound king and lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko returned to the ring for the first time since losing to Teofimo Lopez in October 2020 and reminded the boxing world that he is still one of the best fighters in the sport. Lomachenko scored a dominant ninth-round technical knockout victory over Masayoshi Nakatani on June 26, showing what the Ukrainian can do when he is at his best.

Lomachenko, who underwent right shoulder surgery after the loss to Lopez, seemed to have the speed and power of the old Lomachenko, moving and sliding to make Nakatani miss time and time again during the fight.

In reaction to the performance against Nakatani, boxing trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas moved Lomachenko up one spot above Errol Spence Jr. noting that the way he won “deserves improvement.”

“After the loss to Theophimo, I moved him down a little bit, obviously, and it was the right thing to do,” Atlas said. “And it’s the right thing to do now too, to move him up, by coming back and looking like the fighter he was before. I’m not going to put him in front of everybody else, not back to No. 1, however, he beat a solid fighter, a guy who was the first to go 12 rounds with Teofimo, gave Lopez a little trouble and then came back to knock out Felix Verdejo.”

“Lomachenko took on a decent fighter and made him look like he didn’t belong in the ring with him. He took him apart, piece by piece, and he did it in such a spectacular way, so Lomachenko that I think he deserves to move up.”

Former two-division champion and current ESPN boxing analyst Timothy Bradley Jr. decided to keep Lomachenko at No. 7 in the rankings, opining that Lomachenko needs to beat a bigger name to move up the list.

“If Lomachenko beats Lopez, then he moves up,” Bradley said. “He needs to beat Lopez, and that fight has to happen in the near future, so I’m going to keep Loma where he is and not move him up. If Lomachenko moves up to 140 and beats a champion there or a guy there with credibility, then I’ll think about moving him up.”

ESPN boxing writer Mike Coppinger also ranked Lomachenko at No. 8, and said the kind of performance he showed against Nakatani is what he needs to keep doing to get back on top.

“Immediately after his biggest setback so far, Lomachenko was ruthless and more aggressive than ever in knocking Nakatani down,” Coppinger said. “He never let up the pressure and if he wants to get revenge on Lopez in a rematch, that’s exactly the style he’ll have to employ.”

In another fight last weekend, Gervonta Davis defeated Mario Barrios to win a WBA secondary junior welterweight belt. Davis currently holds titles in three different divisions, 130, 135 and 140 pounds. Many voters, including Atlas and Bradley, decided to move Davis up, but he did not make the top 10, just behind junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada.

Davis stopped Barrios and looked like a “complete fighter,” according to Atlas.

“I thought Davis looked tremendous, I don’t think he got enough credit for the way he did things against Barrios, he broke him,” Atlas said. “Everybody looks at ‘Tank’ Davis like that, as a thank you because he’s short and powerful and people look at him as a guy who will try to run you over and try to knock you out, but against Barrios he looked like a very complete fighter.”

“He knows how to close the gap, like Manny Pacquiao did when he was young, with the right hook, very fast and explosive. He knew how to get in the pocket and connect his body shots beautifully against Barrios, keeping his cool, timing the punches while Barrios was punching, he knew how to escape the punches, especially the right hand that Barrios was trying to land. It really was a great display from a guy who is more than a powerful guy. That’s why I moved him into the top 10.”

Our panel of Mike Coppinger, Timothy Bradley Jr, Joe Tessitore, Cameron Wolfe, Michael Rothstein, Eric Raskin, Andre Ward, Atlas, Nick Parkinson, Michelle Joy Phelps, Ben Baby, Eric Woodyard, Kel Dansby, Bernardo Pilatti, Charles Moynihan and Salvador Rodriguez share their votes.