Contracts signed for Russell Jr. vs. Lomachenko fight on June 21st

By Boxing News - 05/13/2014 - Comments

By Allan Fox: The contracts have been signed for the June 21st fight between #1 WBO Gary Russell Jr. (24-0, 14 KO’s) and #5 WBO Vasyl Lomachenko (1-1, 1 KO’s) for their fight for the vacant WBO featherweight title on HBO at a still to be determined venue in Los Angeles, California. This is a controversial situation with Lomachenko, a two time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, getting a second shot at the WBO featherweight title after he was beaten in his last fight by Orlando Salido by a 12 round split decision last March.

Lomachenko is being given a second chance at the title because Salido came in over the weight limit for the fight and subsequently he had a huge weight advantage over Lomachenko. The controversial part is that the World Boxing Organization is letting a fighter with a 1-1 record in Lomachenko get back to back title shots despite the fact that he never had to prove himself against the other top contenders and work his way to the top like most fighters do.

The WBO simply gave Lomachenko a high ranking based on what he’d done in the Olympics. That would be fine if the sanctioning bodies did the same thing for every Olympic gold medalist, but that’s not the case. Lomachehko was given an express trip to the top of the rankings based on one win over a fighter named Jose Ramirez.

ESPN’s Dan Rafael said “I am told by @GoldenBoyBoxing that the contracts for Russell-Lomachenko on June 21 on @SHOsports are signed. #boxing.”

Also on the same card is Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KO’s) returning to the ring after a year of sitting idle following his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in May. Guerrero will be fighting #7 IBF, #14 WBC Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-1-1, 21 KO’s) in an important fight to get Guerrero moving up the rankings again. He’d like to get another fight against Mayweather, but that’s not going to happen. But Guerrero would like a title against one of the champions. Things are going to be a little tougher for Guerrero this time around, because he’s going to need to deal with fighters like Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana and Keith Thurman for him to get to the top. There are no Selcuk Aydins and Andre Berto’s hanging around to get Guerrero a big money fight this time. He’s going to need to face much better fighters than those guys for him to get a title belt at 147.



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