Shakur Stevenson has shared his pick for the most underrated boxer of all time, and his choice is a fighter whose career has often been judged by a handful of high-profile defeats.
Speaking on the “Ball in the Family” podcast, Stevenson named Vasiliy Lomachenko, arguing that the former three-division world champion never received enough credit because he spent much of his career fighting opponents naturally bigger than him.
Shakur Stevenson Says Lomachenko Was Fighting Above His Natural Weight
When asked who he considers the most underrated fighter in boxing history, Stevenson didn’t need to reach too far back into the sport’s past.
His answer was Lomachenko.
Probably Lomachenko [is the most underrated boxer of all time].
Stevenson’s reasoning largely comes down to size. He believes Lomachenko was naturally closer to a featherweight but spent significant portions of his professional career competing at lightweight.
That meant taking on bigger fighters at 135 pounds, with Stevenson arguing that Lomachenko’s losses in those fights have ultimately overshadowed what he accomplished.
I think that Lomachenko is underrated because I feel like he fought outside of his weight-class.
Lomachenko suffered two of the most notable defeats of his career against Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney. Stevenson believes those results need to be viewed with the size difference in mind, particularly because both Lopez and Haney eventually moved considerably higher in weight.
Rather than facing fighters such as Lopez and Haney, Stevenson suggested Lomachenko’s size was more comparable to someone like Naoya Inoue.
He should be fighting against guys like [Naoya] Inoue, not Teofimo [Lopez] and Devin [Haney] and s**t, so he is underrated to me.
According to Stevenson, Lomachenko was essentially a 126-pound fighter competing against opponents who were better suited to lightweight and beyond.
He fought at 135, where he is really like a 126lber but people discredit him because he lost the big fights against a lot of bigger fighters.
It’s an interesting assessment considering Lomachenko still managed to become a three-division world champion despite Stevenson’s belief that he was regularly competing above his ideal weight.
