In a week where the top two fighters in the world competed for honors, the situation at the helm of the pound-for-pound list changed hands on Saturday night.
Seven days on from current king Gennady Golovkin defending his middleweight belts against Vanes Martirosyan in a one-sided affair, number two-rated Vasiliy Lomachenko overhauled the Kazakh with a victory over Jorge Linares in New York.
It’s a cruel twist for ‘GGG’ who lost out on a lucrative rematch with Canelo Alvarez in a contest that would have easily secured his position if victorious.
Lomachenko Pound for Pound
Lomachenko forced a change at the top for the first time since September of 2017 when stopping Linares in the tenth round.
The Ukrainian picked himself up from the canvas in the mid-rounds to inflict damage on Linares and eventually take out the Venezuelan.
The 2016 WBN Fighter of the Year secured a world title at three separate weight classes in what was just his twelfth contest in the paid ranks.
Lomachenko followed on from his ‘No-Mas-Chenko’ triumph over the much smaller Guillermo Rigondeaux last year.
Many thought Loma would have been handed the reigns after that win, although the sheer size difference afforded to the 30 year-old meant not enough kudos was awarded from the stoppage.
Taking down the seasoned Linares in effectively what was an alien division to Lomachenko was easily enough to see the amateur legend translate his unpaid success to the pro ranks and push Golovkin down to number two.
Terence Crawford is also in line to overtake Golovkin should the former unified super-lightweight king himself become a three-weight ruler against Jeff Horn.
Current WBN P4P Top 10
1 Vasyl Lomachenko
2 Gennady Golovkin
3 Terence Crawford
4 Mikey Garcia
5 Anthony Joshua
6 Canelo Alvarez
7 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
8 Naoya Inoue
9 Wanheng Menayothin
10 Aleksandr Usyk
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