Vasiliy Lomachenko, a 3-division champion is on the verge of becoming a 4-division champion. The Ukrainian professional boxer is one of the fiercest fighters in the world. At just 31 years of age, he has the world at his feet. In the past 4 years, Loma has held WBA, WBO, and Ring magazine titles along with WBO featherweight and junior lightweight titles for four years between 2014 and 2018.
Vasiliy Lomachenko, a 3-division champion is on the verge of becoming a 4-division champion. The Ukrainian professional boxer is one of the fiercest fighters in the world. At just 31 years of age, he has the world at his feet. In the past 4 years, Loma has held WBA, WBO, and Ring magazine titles along with WBO featherweight and junior lightweight titles for four years between 2014 and 2018.
There are a number of things which separate Lomachenko from other fighters. And today, we’ll be studying those aspects. As a boxer, how you can learn from Lomachenko and implement his boxing strategies into your game.
There are a number of things which separate Lomachenko from other fighters. And today, we’ll be studying those aspects. As a boxer, how you can learn from Lomachenko and implement his boxing strategies into your game.
With that shared, let’s check out aspects you can learn from Loma’s boxing:
Table of Contents
Turning your opponents
Lomachenko has a great ability to take very quick half steps around his opponents. This allows him not only to effectively change the angle of the fight but also the position and in some cases the distance. By stepping around his opponents, he most importantly breaks his opponent’s rhythm and then sets up his offense.
As Lomachenko spins around Piriyapinyo while protecting himself, he’s making his opponent commit cardinal sin i.e. rotating or turning on the spot. By doing this moment, Piriyapinyo has set himself for a loss. Lomachenko realizing the mistake made by his opponent will capitalize and use this to his advantage by consistently turning his opponent into a variety of punches. Incredible movement my Lomachenko forces his opponents to commit errors.
Punching whilst turning
This aspect of Lomachenko’s boxing is directly related to his movements. Due to his excellent movements, Lomachenko is able to take advantage of his opponent’s mistakes. In the clip below, his opponent is unable to see Lomachenko’s punches coming in because he’s too caught up with dealing with the fast movement. Instead of getting into the vacated space, Piriyapinyo is launching himself into Lomachenko’s punches which showcases his poor understanding of fundamentals.
This aspect of Lomachenko’s boxing is directly related to his movements. Due to his excellent movements, Lomachenko is able to take advantage of his opponent’s mistakes. In the clip below, his opponent is unable to see Lomachenko’s punches coming in because he’s too caught up with dealing with the fast movement. Instead of getting into the vacated space, Piriyapinyo is launching himself into Lomachenko’s punches which showcases his poor understanding of fundamentals.
Attacking from an angle
Lomachenko is amazing at attacking his opponents from an angle. He likes to spin around his opponents and attack from the side. This is extremely effective when an opponent covers up and doesn’t move his feet.
In this clip above, you saw a three-punch combination from head to the body. Simply staggering. However, at the same time, you can blame his opponent’s stupidity trying to catch the punches instead of moving away. But can you really blame him? Lomachenko’s movements can cause a headache to any boxer in this world. Though his opponent is unable to adjust his body or sort out his feet, Lomachenko isn’t giving him enough time to figure anything out. With his great understanding, Lomachenko proceeds to control his opponent’s head, while doing so, he moves to his opponent’s right and attacking from the sides. That’s all you need to do against stationary opponents.
In this clip below, you can see a beautiful combination comprising of an uppercut, followed by a right hand, the left hand all while the opponent stationary. Though his opponent moves into a high guard, he refuses to move his feet and thereby gets attacked from the sides and in fact every angle.
Possessing Defensive Intelligence
Like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Lomachenko has a great understanding of how to smother his opponent. He’s been controlling matches since he was 23. At that age, it’s excellent to see how he controlled the fight with such grace. One of the best defensive moves is when you slip to the sides and Lomachenko displays that time and time again. Fading to the right or left, leaving his opponent’s efforts and head in shame.
Counter Jab & Double Shift
In the clip below, you can see Lomachenko against Russell, countering the jab by slipping to the outside and then countering with a straight right hand. Lomachenko follows it up by a Double Shift forcing his opponent back towards the ropes.
You can see Lomachenko slipping his opponent’s jab to the outside. It’s always advisable to slip the jab to the outside because it’s much safer. A major benefit is that it moves your head away from your opponent and any of their weapons. On the contrary, slipping to the inside, though it has its benefits is often dangerous. After slipping to the outside, you can see Lomachenko countering with a straight left hand which is the most typical slip and counter over the jab. After delivering the straight left, Lomachenko then steps his left foot forward. AND HERE’S WHERE HE’S ABOUT TO PERFORM A DOUBLE SHIFT.
He starts by effectively changing the stance i.e. from southpaw to conventional in this case. It allows him to carry his body weight into the punch. After delivering the right hand, Lomachenko steps his right foot forward which gets him back into the southpaw stance. Thus, he has successfully completed the double shift.
Lightning Counters
Similar to Rigondeaux and Golovkin, Lomachenko is great at counter punching. Not just his counters but the speed of his counters is jaw-dropping. Yet again, we’ll look into his fight against Piriyapinyo. In this clip below, you can see Lomachenko slipping to the outside of the jab and countering it with a straight left hand. The speed at which he’s countering is mesmerizing. He isn’t slipping and countering but rather countering whilst simultaneously slipping to the outside.
In the clip below, Lomachenko counters over the jab with an overhand right. That’s a typical counter for a jab especially when the jab is low or around the chest height. This shows how great counterpuncher Lomachenko is!
Block Removal & Offense
Lomachenko is a gifted fighter who always thinks out of the box. For instance, look at this clip below in which he’s fighting Piriyapinyo. He uses the Block Removal techniques to effectively set up his offense whilst his opponent is trying to cover up. He does so by using a left hook to take out his opponent’s right hand to create a better opening. It’s one of the smartest moves in boxing yet it’s underutilized.
In this clip below, Lomachenko yet again uses his right glove to remove his opponent’s right hand away from his head. This move allows him to shoot a left hook. He is one of the very few fighters who use this technique.
Effective light punches
Lomachenko is great at throwing light punches which mainly consist of pawning jabs and straights. These help him create volume and enable him to probe the opponent’s defense without over-committing. With light punches, he is able to occupy an opponent’s guard before he changes the power and tempo of his blows. By doing so, he’s able to maximize the impact of his attack when targeting the openings.
Body Feints & Faking
Lomachenko’s excellence of using feints, false attacks often threaten, confuses and deceives his opponents.
Lomachenko is great at crafting openings by working the opponent up and down and vice-versa.
He uses feints to a great effect to test his opponent’s tendencies. This allows him to read their game and make the adjustments as per their movements. The reason why he is able to control fights so masterfully is because of his skills to allow the opponent to express themselves. Once, he figures their way out, he uses their own skills against them and locks them up, quite similar to Mayweather Jr.
In this clip below, you can see that Lomachenko follows a left hand to the body immediately after the jab feint. This causes his opponent to drop his right hand in order to block the perceived threat. Also, you can see, how Lomachenko feints a jab and then creatively follows it up with an overhand left. Thus, taking advantage of the response he had initially anticipated.
Baiting your opponents
Lomachenko’s upper body movement not only creates an elusive target but it also tempts an opponent into throwing tentative, easily anticipated jabs which can be slipped and countered in turn.
Through his mastermind distance control and body structure, Lomachenko is able to anticipate what his opponent has in store for him. This allows him to determine what punches his opponent will throw and how he is to counter them. Just like the game of chess. He is always a step ahead, thinking about the next move. Though, it’s not necessary that you’d get it right the moment you start it. However, with a good amount of practice, you’ll be able to anticipate your opponent’s moves and counter it accordingly.
Lomachenko often uses a combination of an elevated left glove and a lowered right glove which baits an opponent into attacking.
Destroying your opponent’s guard
Lomachenko has a great way of unlocking his opponent’s defense. When up against a defensive opponent, Lomachenko often uses slapping techniques, wherein he slaps his opponent’s gloves to create a forceful opening. He then proceeds to exploit the opening using a hook from the opposite hand.
Excellent Grappling
Following in the footsteps of legend Benny Leonard, Lomachenko utilizes his gloves and forearms to control his opponent’s head. He uses this to change the direction and steer himself into one direction and maneuver his opponent in the opposite direction.
In this clip above, watch how Lomachenko evades a right hand before waltzing his opponent and then nailing him with a trio of hooks.
“Remember, it’s always good to throw the punch where you can hit him and he can’t hit you. That’s what the science of boxing is all about.” – Cus D’Amato
Positional Supremacy
As seen is Lomachenko’s bouts, an ideal position is the one which offers a boxer a great attacking potential as compared to his opponent. Through accurate sidestepping and the ability to read the bout, Lomachenko is able to attain positional supremacy over his opponent. Not only does he move, he already has the next move up his sleeves. He can attack and move, attack whilst moving and finally move after attacking. In a literal sense, you can see him bullying his opponent, bamboozling them with his lightning-quick movements and not giving them enough time to find their feet. He makes his opponent looks lacklustre and forces them to commit mistakes by putting them in tough spots. We saw many examples of this in his fight against Piriyapinyo.
Though we have discussed 13 aspects of Lomachenko’s boxing which can improve your boxing tremendously, what fascinates me the most is the way he is able to create space for himself. His understanding of angles and creating them is what sets him up as one of the most prized fighters in the current boxing scene. Like other blogs, we aren’t going to leave you with the aspects of their game but with few additional tips on how to improve that particular aspect. In this blog, I’d like to stress on creating angles like Vasiliy Lomachenko before I conclude.
3 Ways to create Boxing angles like Lomachenko
In the initial rounds, Lomachenko comes out in Southpaw stance peppering his opponent with high volume, low power shots. He does so with the intention of eliciting a response from his opponent. For this reason, he starts by throwing a jab to force his opponent into moving. Once he understands the pattern, he then proceeds to create the angles. Lomachenko usually loves three angles, let’s check them out.
The left angle created through shifting
He starts by peppering his opponent with a 1-2-1 combination and then he decides to create the angle by chopping a left hook with both his feet moving outwards in the 90-degree angle. This allows him to move sideways and opens up two possibilities for him. 1. He can either attack from the sides and throw the right uppercut or the hook to the body or 2. Wait for his opponent to turn and leave them dumbfounded with an expected punch (We saw this many time in this fight against Piriyapinyo).
Slipping rightwards
Another technique usually employed by Lomachenko involves slipping to the right. He starts by throwing or faking a left straight simultaneously with stepping the right leg out. While he is doing it, he stops his opponent’s shoulder preventing them from attacking and then it gives him space to throw a left uppercut or a left straight.
Using the clinch
Lomachenko’s angle creation is not just through his body positioning or movements. He successfully creates angles whilst being in a clinch. In a clinch, he chickens wings his elbow a little bit and then fires off a left hook. Once he throws the first punch, it automatically creates a space for him to move into and take it from there. Most of the times when his hand is caught in the guard, he yanks it down which automatically creates an opening. He also uses a deceiving technique wherein he throws a jab to the other side, measures his opponent’s gloves and throw a punch from the opposite hand.
Conclusion
Lomachenko is an amazing fighter, one who will be a legend in time to come. While he’s boxing, all we can do is witness his excellence in the ring and learn as much as we can from him. I hope this detailed analysis did justice to his fighting style and you’re driving home with some valuable points.
