Pound-for-pound star Vasyl Lomachenko insists he only wants to face the biggest names in order to cement his place in boxing history.
The reigning WBO super-featherweight world champion takes on Colombian big-hitter Miguel Marriaga this Saturday night from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, exclusively live on BoxNation.
Together they ruled the world as dominant heavyweight champions, realising a lifelong dream as they did so. Now, with Wladimir Klitschko’s retirement announcement coming yesterday, both “Doctors,” Wladimir and Vitali, have ceased operating.
Vasyl Lomachenko defends his WBO junior lightweight belt against Miguel Marriaga in what on paper is a showcase fight on ESPN. Top Rank is banking on this main event being stylistically an entertaining matchup for television.
Saturday nights co-feature is Raymundo Beltran versus Bryan Vasquez.
WBC Super Middleweight World Champion Nikki Adler and hometown favorite, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Claressa Shields officially made weight on Thursday, one day before they headline a doubleheader tomorrow/Friday, Aug. 4 on ShoBox: The New Generation live on SHOWTIME® (10:30 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast) from MGM Grand Detroit.
Shields (3-0, 1 KO) tipped the scales at 165 ¼ pounds with the champion Adler (16-0, 9 KOs) of Germany coming in at 166 pounds even. In the ShoBox co-feature, world-ranked super bantamweight Vladimir Tikhonov (15-0, 9 KOs) of Russia will face Jesse Hernandez (8-1, 6 KOs) of Fort Worth, Texas, in an eight-round bout. Both fighters weighed in at 123 ¼ pounds.
Fight fans around the world have surely heard the news by now: heavyweight great Wladimir Klitschko has officially announced his retirement from boxing. At age 41, the former king who ruled for the best part of twenty long years – his unbeaten 2006 to 2015 run seeing the giant at his peak – announced how he had achieved his dreams and is ready to move on to his next career.
CAMP LIFE, the digital series produced exclusively by Top Rank®, returns today with a three-part feature on two-division world champion and top pound for pound fighter VASYL “Hi-Tech” LOMACHENKO. Designed to give a behind-the-scenes look at training camps of fighters in the Top Rank stable, CAMP LIFE gives fans a real taste of training camp as fighters prepare for their battles. CAMP LIFE will be distributed on various platforms, including Top Rank’s website (www.toprank.com), Facebook, Top Rank’s You Tube channel and Twitter.
While the sport of boxing has lost one big rematch with the retirement of former heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko, it seems there is a good chance we will see a Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn rematch even if we will not now see an Anthony Joshua-Klitschko II.
According to Top Rank boss and Pac Man promoter Bob Arum, who spoke with The Manila Times, talks have begun for the rematch, and Arum says it’s likely the sequel to one of this year’s biggest boxing upsets will take place in the same place: Australia.
Thank goodness for a Plan-B. Now that former heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko has retired, thus forever ending any talk of a rematch with Anthony Joshua, AJ is looking at his next fight. And Eddie Hearn, in speaking with Sky Sports, said a fight between AJ and his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev is already in place.
Though glitzy Las Vegas is almost certainly out – Joshua-Pulev having nothing of the Big Fight factor to it that Joshua-Klitschko II had – it’s good that Joshua will not have to waste time searching for a replacement challenger.
Wladimir Klitschko has retired from boxing after an incredible 27-year career as a fighter.
Wladimir Klitschko: : “I deliberately took a few weeks to make my decision, to make sure I had enough distance from the fight at Wembley Stadium. As an amateur and a professional boxer, I have achieved everything I dreamed of, and now I want to start my second career after sports.I would have never imagined that I would have such a long and incredibly successful boxing career. I´m very thankful for this. Thanks to everyone who has always supported me. Especially my family, my team and my many fans.”
How can former amateur sensation Vasyl Lomachenko prove his greatness at pro level? Already a two-weight world champ, this despite having had just nine fights in the paid ranks, the gifted southpaw wants much more.
Lomachenko, in action against whopping outsider Miguel Marriaga this Saturday night (some odds-makers have the defending WBO 130 pound champ listed as an enormous 100/1 favourite over the Colombian challenger) told ESPN, the network that will carry his fight, that he is “frustrated” right now.