Loma Lomachenko latest boxing news and headlines
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.
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).
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.
After a mooted clash with Cuba’s 122 lb champion Guillermo Rigondeaux fell through after financial terms could not be agreed, WBO 126 lb titlist Vasyl Lomachenko will make the third defence of his belt against little known Mexican, Romulo Koasica, on the under card of Nov 7’s Tim Bradley/Brandon Rios clash.
It’s a blow to fans who had hoped to see the two stand-outs square off in what would sure to be a true, intriguing, 50/50 chess match type of a fight, such is the technical prowess of each man. Both won Olympic gold twice in glittering amateur careers and the soon to be 35 year old Rigondeaux is still yet to even box this year and isn’t getting any younger. Time is not on the side of this fight dragging in being made.
Jose Santa Cruz, father and trainer of new WBA (sup) featherweight champion Leo, believes there is little point in his son signing on for a rematch with fellow Mexican-American star Abner Mares, especially given the strong showing on Saturday night, and believes that fights with the divisions Eastern European element, including Ukrainian amateur standout and WBO 126 lb champion Vasyl Lomachenko, are the best way forward for his son.
Speaking via fighthype.com, the elder Santa Cruz said of the potential Mares rematch.
“If there are others with more technique, better technique, (we’d like them) to make for a better fight.”
WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2ko) has upped the ante in trying to push for a fight with Cuban former amateur standout Guillermo Rigondeaux, telling the WBA (sup) 122 lb champion, ‘let’s fight for the right to be champion.
Lomachenko took to social media after provisional talks between the two camps about a mooted contest at 126 have stalled, ostensibly over a 134 lb rehydration clause in the contract that the Cuban wants to ensure Lomachenko doesn’t blow up too significantly on fight night.
We last saw him looking fantastic on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao fight on May 2nd, and in the clearest sign yet of what we can expect next from WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, his manager Egis Klimas has spoken to ESPN to say that two likely options exist for the Ukrainian former amateur standout – former WBA 126 lb champ Simpiwe Vetyeka, or new IBF champion Lee Selby.
Selby was nothing short of sublime last time out 5 weeks ago in London, halting tough Russian champion and IBF fighter of the year Evgeny Gradovich. The doctor was forced to intervene after a nasty cut opened up above the former champion’s eye – yet it was always only a matter of time before the Welsh fighter turned up the heat even further than he already had, and some may say, the cut only saved Gradovich from further punishment.
As soon as Jamaica’s Nicholas Walter’s appeared at the weigh in ahead of his WBA 126 lb fight last Saturday against Miguel Marriaga, those in attendance and watching proceedings elsewhere could see immediately that he was drained.
After missing weight and dropping his title on the scales, the fans who had been looking forward to the mooted unification fight with WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, were left scratching their heads, wondering if it will indeed now happen if the “Axe Man” is no longer able to make the weight and intends on moving up.
Undefeated WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz, WBO Featherweight World Champion Vasyl Lomachenko, their opponents and non-televised fighters participated Thursday in the undercard final press conference before their respective fights taking place this Saturday, May 2, live on pay-per-view at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
In pay-per-view fights before Floyd “Money” Mayweather meets Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao in their epic welterweight championship unificiation showdown, the Mexican star Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 KOs) will take on fellow Mexican countryman Jose Cayetano (17-3, 8 KOs) in a 10-round featherweight contest and Ukraine’s Lomachenko (3-1, 1 KO) will defend against Puerto Rico’s Gamalier Rodriguez (25-2-3, 17 KOs).
(Note: In the fourth installment of a week long breakdown, boxing scribe Vivek “Vito” Wallace analyzes where today’s top fighters stand, and whether or not 2015 could be the year many of them fall. This week long analysis will cover over 30 top fighters from around the world)
GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX
For the best boxer of this era to rise from the Cuban ranks, 2014 was far from eventful. After a stunning 2013 that saw him defeat both Donaire and Agbeko, 2014 saw him destroy an unknown fighter in China, and forcibly scrape himself off the canvas twice against an unknown fighter in Japan. Definitely not the level of competition you’d like to see from a fighter none as “boring”.