HBO Boxing lights up Broadway on the eve of New York’s Puerto Rican Day Parade when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: ROCKY MARTINEZ VS. VASYL LOMACHENKO AND FELIX VERDEJO VS. JUAN JOSE MARTINEZ is seen SATURDAY, JUNE 11 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from The Theater at Madison Square Garden, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Vasiliy Lomachenko
Loma Lomachenko latest boxing news and headlines
Rocky Martinez Discusses June 11 Title Defense Against Vasyl Lomachenko
It is an incredible fight for Rocky Martinez. It has been an opportunity we have been looking for a long time. As everyone knows, Rocky Martinez has already been a world champion three times. He has a lot of experience and he has been looking for this type of opportunity. Being the main event on HBO will give him a lot of exposure and a win over Lomachenko will be incredible for his career. In our camp, we are really confident about this fight — confident that we can win this fight. Rocky is the bigger guy and the guy with the experience and he is hungry. Also to fight on the weekend of the Puerto Rican Day Parade is an incredible thing for Rocky Martinez.
Vasyl Lomachenko Discusses June 11 Title Fight of Martinez at The Garden
Vasyl, do you feel any pressure going into this fight?
VASYL LOMACHENKO: I don’t have fresh pressures but of course I think about it. I wanted this fight and I am taking it very seriously. I want to do everything right from the beginning. I don’t want to put something like in a blueprint what happened with Salido.
Martinez-Lomachenko ticket info
You better believe Saturday night’s alright for fighting, especially in New York on Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend! Three-time world champion ROMAN “Rocky” MARTINEZ and World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight world champion VASYL LOMACHENKO will go mano a mano for Martinez’s WBO junior lightweight world title and the boxing gem of Puerto Rico, FELIX “El Diamante” VERDEJO, will risk his WBO Latino lightweight crown, undefeated record and No. 2 world rating against JUAN JOSE MARTINEZ in the co-main event of a championship doubleheader Saturday, June 11 — one day before the famed Puerto Rican Day Parade — at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The two bouts, scheduled for 12 and 10 rounds, respectively, will be televised live on HBO beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. The non-televised undercard will feature the U.S. debut of two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Amateur Champion ZOU SHIMING from The Peoples Republic of China in a 10-round flyweight bout.
Vasyl Lomachenko wants Leo Santa Cruz, not Rigondeaux
In a recent interview, the Ukrainian featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (5-1-0) stated that he is not at all interested in talking about Guillermo Rigondeaux (16-0-0), but is instead interested in fighting Mexico’s Leo Santa Cruz (31-0-1).
Rigondeaux, with every fight he slowly nails his own career shut. One by one, his fights prove to be less and less exciting, and this kind of lackluster event has no monetary value to most. All this aside, he is an exceptional technical fighter, accumulating victories one after another seemingly without much effort.
Bradley and Lomachenko go to the core of the matter
Timothy Bradley (33-1-1 13KO) was understandably jubilant with his ninth round TKO of Brandon Rios (33-3-1 24KO)at the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV. Everything went according to plan, one that his new trainer Teddy Atlas laid out for him. For much of the fight, Bradley was just too fast for Rios. He ripped off multi-punch combinations so fast that Teddy had to caution him a bit between rounds, telling him that it was okay to once in a while just throw a two or three punch combo and then move. When he wasn’t firing off combo’s, he was moving, side to side, in and out or up and down. Rios just couldn’t time him enough to land a good shot.
Bradley KOs Rios; Lomachenko stops Koasicha
Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) was totally outclassed tonight in losing to WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) by a 9th round knockout in a one-sided mismatch between these two Top Rank promoted fighters at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rios was stopped for the first time in his 11-year pro career after getting knocked down twice in the 9th from body shots.
Official Weights from Las Vegas – Timothy Bradley Jr.: 146.0 lbs. Brandon Rios: 147.2 lbs.
Saturday’s HBO World Championship Boxing telecast begins at 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT). The main event features a matchup of welterweights Timothy Bradley Jr. and Brandon Rios in a scheduled 12-round fight. The telecast kicks off with a featherweight title fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Romulo Koasicha.
Official Weights from Las Vegas:
Timothy Bradley Jr.: 146.0 lbs.
Brandon Rios: 147.2 lbs.
Vasyl Lomachenko: I Want to Fight With Artistry
WBO featherweight champion, Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2ko), claims that his mission in boxing is to be not only technically the best he can, yet to forever focus on showcasing those skills as a form of art, each and every time he steps between the ropes.
The Ukrainian amateur standout was beaten just the once in 397 contests as an amateur, and boxes on the under-card of the Tim Bradley/Brandon Rios welterweight clash on HBO PPV Saturday night, squaring off against little known Mexican, Romulo Koaschia (25-4, 15ko).
Lomachenko talks Koasicha fight
Two-time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist and reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight world champion VASYL LOMACHENKO (4-1, 2 KOs) kicked off Fight Week today with a training camp Media Workout at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Oxnard, Calif. Lomachenko will defend his title on Saturday night against WBO No. 7 world-rated contender ROMULO KOASICHA (24-4,14 KOs), of San Luis Potosi, Mexico.