QUARTER MASTERS
#8 VASILIY LOMACHENKO 18-3 (12 KOs), 2013-2025 Titles held: Featherweight (WBO); Junior lightweight (WBO); Lightweight (Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO) Even with two Olympic gold medals and an unfathomable amateur record of 396-1, Lomachenko’s shot at a world title in just his second pro fight seemed unnecessarily audacious to some, even arrogant. Mexican veteran Orlando Salido apparently agreed, showing how much he cared about Loma’s amateur
Hopkins blasts out Tito Trinidad at Madison Square Garden.
record by not making weight and roughing up the Ukrainian for 12 rounds to win a split decision. But true to form, with his rude introduction to the pros complete, Lomachenko processed the information and adapted. He picked up the vacant WBO featherweight title in his next fight by handing the lightning-quick Gary Russell Jr. his first loss. In the second and third of three successful defenses, his opponents got knocked down and willingly took a 10 count rather than reenter a hopeless situation. Lomachenko then moved up to 130 pounds and won the WBO belt with a highlight- reel knockout of three-time titleholder Roman Martinez. His next four opponents, overwhelmed, gave up in their corners. Let that sink in. They included Cuban maestro Guillermo Rigondeaux, who was undefeated and ranked No. 4 pound-for-pound at the time.
It was during this time that Lomachenko did indeed seem like “The One,” with upper-body movement that left opponents punching through vapors, footwork that bordered on teleportation and fluid combinations that were more like conjurations in the way they blended exotic angles with unpredictable speeds to do everything from distract to flatten opponents with surgical precision. Each fight was a high- speed vivisection. At lightweight, he was floored by the extremely gifted Jorge Linares but surged back and eventually overwhelmed the Venezuelan to become a three-division titleholder. Now retired, Lomachenko at his best was a wonder to behold.
Roy Jones Jr. in 1993, but he captured it two years later, at the age of 30, in a rematch with Segundo Mercado. He defended it 10 times (including a no-contest against Robert Allen) before the year 2000 – already an epic run for any fighter – but he was just getting started. There would be 10 more successful defenses, during which he also picked up the Ring, WBA, WBC and WBO titles, completing the collection against none other than future business partner De La Hoya. That win was preceded by victories over Trinidad (Tito’s first loss) and former titleholder William Joppy. The reign came to an end against Jermain Taylor in 2005, but the now-41- year-old Hopkins bounced back a year later, beating Antonio Tarver to become the Ring light heavyweight champion. After losing the belt to Joe Calzaghe, he won it again by beating Jean Pascal at the age of 46. After losing it to Dawson, he beat
Loma finds the target against lightweight contender Jamaine Ortiz.
#7 BERNARD HOPKINS 55-8-2 (32 KOs), 1988-2016 Titles held: Middleweight (undisputed); Light heavyweight (Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC) Thinking Hopkins was going to turn into some kind of grandfatherly relic puttering around the ring was an error made over and over by journalists and
opponents alike, a mistake on the level of thinking that velociraptors would make cute museum exhibits in Jurassic Park . “The Executioner” had his first pro fight two years before Canelo was even born and was already 36-2-1 when the century rolled over. Incredibly, though, his major accomplishments took place after 1999, making him a fully legal addition to this list. Always the enigma, he was voted as high as No. 3 by one panelist but was completely unranked in three of the top 10s submitted, which will cause disagreement but is somehow appropriate, given how fond B-Hop is of psychological warfare. Hopkins’ first shot at the IBF middleweight title was thwarted by
Tavoris Cloud to win another world title at the age of 48. All of those losses were decisions, by the way, most of them extremely narrow. The only time Hopkins was stopped was in his final fight, at 51 years old, by Joe Smith Jr. Hopkins has always taken extremely good care of himself, obviously, but he was also a quick-fisted and supremely crafty (sometimes a little dirty) defensive wizard who could almost always find a way to nullify his opponents’ strengths. And again, when it came to ring IQ and understanding the art of war, he had no rivals. It would be tempting to say that he has forgotten more about boxing than most fighters know, but Hopkins probably never forgets anything.
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