By Edward Chaykovsky

Longtime HBO Boxing analyst and former newspaper reporter Larry Merchant is not following the line of experts who want to crown Vasyl Lomachenko as the new pound-for-pound king of boxing.

Last Saturday night, Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) retained his WBO super featherweight title with a stoppage over Jason Sosa.

And while some view him as the best fighter in boxing, others have issue with the status due to Lomachenko's lack of top level opposition.

Some of the few recognizable opponents on Lomachenko's record were already beaten by other top fighters. The undefeated danger man was Nicholas Walters, who was coming off a lengthy layoff when he accepted the assignment last fall, and refused to continue fighting after getting outclassed. There is also a defeat, controversial or not, to Orlando Salido. The best win on Lomachenko's record is arguably over current WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr.

Merchant ranks WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin as the best fighter in boxing.

And he positions light heavyweights Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev right behind GGG's top spot.

Besides those three boxers, Merchant sees no reason for Lomachenko to be rated above such fighters as WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia and WBC, WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford - two men who Merchant would like to see Lomachenko face at some point.

"I'm not of the chorus who is a true believer that [Lomachenko] is a great fighter yet," Merchant said to ESPN. "I would call him an excellent fighter and I'd want to see him fight the top guys before I could draw that kind of conclusion.

"I think that Golovkin is the best fighter in the world right now. I'd maybe put Ward and Kovalev after him. The rest of it is in the process of being resolved. I don't see any reason why Lomachenko should be rated ahead of Terence Crawford or Mikey Garcia. But, happily, those are fights Lomachenko could fight that could settle the issue."