a good example for this is lomachenko… when he was at featherweight/ junior lightweight he was a complete beast… light, agile, crazy footwork, angles, combinations, everything. when he went up to lightweight he could never replicate his previous style. not only cos he was fighting bigger fighters but also because his body could never move as well as he did at his ‘optimum weight’

i feel like since izzy moved up to LH he has never been the same fighter. if you compare his fights after fighting jan to his fights before, its like a completely different person. when he fought kelvin for example, he looked extremely sharp, constantly switching stances, super agile, aggressive and switched on. since he fought jan his performances have seemed sluggish and slow, and thats why hes been a lot less aggressive. he’s relied on a very safe point fighting style against vettori, whittaker and cannonier, then lost to alex.

if you watch back to any of his fights prior to moving up in weight, he looked extremely sharp and much more aggressive and creative. i genuinely think adding all that weight has changed him. even though hes still at middleweight he looks a lot bigger. he changed his body composition in a fundemental way and he’s never been able to recover that incredible fighting style he had before. against strickland he looked slow and cautious, with no confidence. its happened to many fighters before who have moved up on weight.