Lomachenko to get another shot at WBO featherweight title in the Summer, says Arum

By Boxing News - 03/03/2014 - Comments

lomachenko4By Chris Williams: Showing that it helps being connected with a high-powered promotional company like Top Rank, #5 WBO Vasyl Lomachenko (1-1, 1 KO’s) will be getting an immediate title shot at the vacant WBO featherweight title in the Summer despite the fact that Lomachenko was beaten in his fight last Saturday by Orlando Salido in an attempt to capture the same title at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. WBO president Paco Valcarcel is giving Lomachenko another chance to snatch the WBO featherweight title, but it won’t be against Salido again because he’s moving up in weight.

Lomachenko will be fighting against one of the top contenders that the WBO has ranked in their top 15. It probably won’t be against Gary Russell Jr., even though he’s ranked No.1 by the WBO. He’s with Golden Boy Promotions, so that’ll mean that he’s going to be likely skipped over for this fight. I wonder what the WBO will say in justifying that another contender get the shot at the vacant WBO title instead of Russell Jr?

HBO made a big production about Salido’s so-called low blows in the fight, but in looking at the fight on slow motion, I saw nothing but belt line shots thrown by Salido in 99% of the cases. Lomachenko was catching the shots on his belt line, and those are allowable shots. The HBO talking heads got excited for nothing about the low blows.

If it’s not Russell Jr. that Lomachenko will fight, then it’ll be one of the little known featherweight contenders like Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, Joel Brunker or Kamil Laszczyk that he ends up facing. Those guys are ranked high by the WBO, but not any of the other sanctioning bodies. If the WBO orders Lomachenko to fight one of those guys then it’ll be the equivalent of the WBO just giving Lomachenko a title.

Lomachenko clinched for the 10 of the 12 rounds of the fight, and gave away his only chance of winning the fight by failing to actually fight. It was shocking that a 1-0 fighter was given a world title shot over more deserving contenders in the first place, but now Lomachenko is being given a second crack at the title by the World Boxing Organization.

“Considering what Lomachenko had to deal with against Salido being heavier and all that, Paco [Valcarcel] said he’s offering the vacant title fight to Lomachenko first,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to the LA Times.

It’s pretty sad that Lomachenko is going to get another title shot after he was beaten by Salido. What happened to the days where a fighter had to work his way into title contention by beating top contenders one after another? What happened to the days where a fighter went back in line after he was beaten in a title shot? I think it looks bad that Lomachenko is being given another crack at a title when he blew his chance of winning the title against Salido by clinching for most of the fight.

It’s going to look really bad if Lomachenko is given yet another world title if he gets beaten in the Summer, although I doubt he’ll lose if Russell Jr. isn’t facing him. Russell Jr. would beat Lomachenko, as would Guillermo Rigondeaux. Lomachenko was a great amateur, but as pro he’s nothing special. He doesn’t throw enough punches, he holds too much, and he doesn’t like it to the body.



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