No. 76 - Vasiliy Lomachenko

I have to admit, the first time I ran the numbers on Vasiliy Lomachenko and saw how highly he was ranked in my system I considered changing the rules.

I thought about setting a 20-fight minimum. After all, how can someone with just 15 professional fights already rank in the top 80 fighters all time? The only other rules I have is that I'm not ranking any heavyweights before Jack Johnson (no James Jeffries) or lower weight fighters before Joe Gans because their point totals are artificially high since they wouldn't fight the top African-American fighters.

Lomachenko kind of breaks the system.

In this, fighters get points in three ways - significant fights, non-significant fights and then the Peak 5 fights.

Lomachenko's point totals for significant fights is good but not great. His best score so far in a fight was Luke Campbell in his last one, which was worth just 154.5 points. Campbell is never going to end up in a boxing hall of fame, but the fight was for three titles, which boosted the score.

His Peak 5 fight total of 714.8 is very low. He's only fought two fighters who may have a shot at a boxing hall of fame - Guillermo Rigondeaux and Gary Russell Jr.

It's in the non-significant category where he's kind of gamed the system. Lomachenko is arguably the greatest amateur fighter ever. He ran up a record of 396-1 and won two Olympic Gold Medals.

That storied past allowed Lomachenko to fight for a fringe title in his professional debut. In that fight, he knocked knocked out Jose Ramirez, who was 25-3, to win the WBO International Featureweight Title.

In his second fight, he took on Orlando Salido for the WBO World Featherweight Title. Every fight since has been for world titles.

The Ramirez fight is the closest thing to a "non-significant" fight. That's big because to even out eras I take the number of fights below 50 and multiply those by the average non-significant fight score and then multiply that figure by 75 percent to not overweight fighters who were not that active.

The reason for this is that very few fighters today actually get to 50 fights. Andre Ward retired at 32 fights. Sugar Ray Leonard had 40. Riddick Bowe had 45. If I didn't boost them up to 50 then no modern fighter would have a chance to reach the point totals of Archie Moore, who had 219, or Sugar Ray Robinson, who had 202.

So here's how it works for Lomachenko. He got 100 points for knocking out Ramirez multiplied by Ramirez's winning percentage of 89.29%. So the win is worth 89.29 points as a "non-significant" win (I threw out the 20 point bonus for a minor title). He's had 15 professional fights so I have to multiply 89.29 times 35 to bring his fight total up to 50. That equals 3,125.15 points. Then I multiplied that by .75 to not overweight Lomachenko's lack of fights. So Loma's final "non-significant" score ends up 2,343.9.

That's a lengthy explanation about how Lomachenko already is on this list. It will be hard for Loma to zoom up the list though unless he begins ramping up his competition. His next fight is likely to be against Teofimo Lopez to unify all the lightweight belts. That means 200 points will be at stake - 100 points for a possible knockout and 100 points for fighting for all four main titles.

Those are the kind of challenges Loma will need to get in the top 50 or top 25 because every time he fights he actually loses 89.29 points from his non-significant totel.

Got it?

Vasiliy Lomachenko
Significant Fights
Opponent	Result	Fight Points	Title Points	HOF Points	Total	x Win %	Final Total
Jose Ramirez	KO	100	20		120	89.29%	107.1
Orlando Salido	SD-L	25	10		35	77.36%	27.1
Gary Russell Jr.	SD-W	75	40		115	100.00%	115.0
Suriya Tatakhun	UD-W	90	40		130	98.08%	127.5
Gamalier Rodriguez	KO	100	40		140	92.59%	129.6
Romulo Koasicha	KO	100	40		140	86.21%	120.7
Roman Martinez	KO	100	40		140	93.55%	131.0
Nicholas Walters	KO	100	40		140	90.00%	140.0
Jason Sosa	KO	100	40		140	95.24%	133.3
Miguel Marriaga	KO	100	40		140	92.59%	129.6
Guillermo Rigondeaux	KO	100	40		140	100.00%	140.0
Jorge Linares	KO	100	40		140	93.62%	131.1
Jose Pedraza	UD-W	90	60		150	96.15%	144.2
Anthony Crolla	KO	100	60		160	85.00%	136.0
Luke Campbell	UD-W	90	80		170	90.91%	154.5
Totals (14-0-1, 10 KOs), 1 SDL							1,866.8
Record in non-significant fights
1-0-0, 1 KO (Ramirez)		100
% of fights toward 50 (0%)
35 fight adjustment to 50		89.29	x35		3,125.15	75.00%	2,343.9
Totals							4,210.7
Peak 5 Fights
Luke Campbell							154.5
Jose Pedraza							144.2
Guillermo Rigondeaux							140.0
Nicholas Walters							140.0
Anthony Crolla							136.0
Peak 5 Totals							714.8
Final Totals (significant, non-significant, Peak 5)							4,925.4

Boxing's 100 Countdown
Rank	Fighter	Significant Fights	Non-Significant Fights	Peak 5	Final Total
76.	Vasiliy Lomachenko	1,866.8	2,343.9	714.8	4,925.4
77.	Mike McCallum	1,998.4	2,124.3	800.4	4,923.2
78.	Billy Conn	1,937.3	1,936.1	1,031.5	4,905.0
79.	Benny Leonard	1,729.8	2,089.5	1,040.1	4,859.4
80.	Sugar Shane Mosley	2,479.9	1,512.3	858.7	4,850.9
81.	Lou Ambers	1,589.2	2,098.7	1,158.2	4,846.1
82.	Harry Wills	2,564.4	1,355.7	923.7	4,843.8
83.	Mickey Walker	1,987.8	1,775.7	1,075.4	4,838.8
84.	Joe Gans	2,314.9	1,639.8	883.0	4,837.6
85.	Sven Ottke	2,824.5	1,317.7	687.5	4,829.7
86.	Ronald "Winky" Wright	2,243.3	1,658.3	922.5	4,824.1
87.	Fighting Harada	1,259.6	2,409.2	1,105.9	4,774.7
88.	Humberto Gonzalez	1,866.7	1,952.3	907.3	4,726.4
89.	Ricardo Lopez	2,830.5	1,188.1	702.7	4,721.3
90.	Carmen Basilio	1,723.3	1,804.7	1,184.1	4,712.2
91.	Orlando Canizales	2,529.3	1,510.3	669.3	4,708.9
92.	Jeff Fenech	2,103.9	1,728.7	844.8	4,677.4
93.	Michael Carbajal	2,333.7	1,519.2	817.0	4,669.9
94.	Marcel Thil	2,579.8	1,170.9	900.9	4,651.6
95.	Nicolino Locche	1,858.0	1,946.8	820.3	4,625.1
96.	Ricky Hatton	3,458.8	449.1	708.9	4,616.8
97.	Ismael Laguna	1,059.5	2,659.4	889.9	4,608.7
98.	Ramon "Chocalatito" Gonzalez	2,187.1	1,771.9	638.6	4,597.5
99.	Wilfredo Benitez	1,439.4	2,223.0	914.4	4,586.8
100.	Carlos Zarate	1,124.2	2,707.1	751.5	4,582.8