By Allan Fox: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is working on a long awaited fight between former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) and current WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenklo (5-1, 3 KOs) for June 11 on HBO at Madison Square Garden in New York.
It would be a good location for the fight because a lot of Ukrainian and/or Russians could come see Lomachenko fight. Also on the same card, Arum is looking to add unbeaten WBC light welterweight champion Viktor Postol in defending his title against #6 WBC Adrian Granados. It would be an interesting fight for the co-feature if Arum can put the fight together.
Arum had been hoping to have the Lomachenko-Walters fight televised on HBO on April 30, but it wasn’t possible to do the fight at that time. Lomachenko would be moving up to super featherweight to face the 29-year-old Walters, who clearly can’t make the featherweight division weight limit of 126lbs any longer at this point in his career.
Arum also wants to put unbeaten lightweight contender Felix Verdejo on the undercard as well, provided he wins his fight in April against an opponent to be determined and doesn’t get injured in the process. The June 11th date works well because it’s the day before the Puerto Rican day parade. Having Verdejo on the card could attract a lot of Puerto Ricans to the card. By having Walters, Verdejo, Lomachenko and Postol on the same card, Arum increases the chance the fight will sellout. Just having the Walters vs. Lomachenko fight on the card might not be enough to sellout the card.
Lomachenko was beaten by Orlando Salido in 2014 in being overpowered by the heavier Mexican fighter. Lomachenko wasn’t ready for the kind of body attack that Salido launched in that fight. Since then, Lomachenko has won his last four fights against Romulo Koasicha, Gamlier Rodriguez, Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, and Gary Russell.
Walters was held to a 10 round draw against Jason Sosa last December. Walters made the mistake of slugging with Sosa, and he wound up giving away too many of the early rounds of the fight. By the time Walters made adjustments in the second half to start using his boxing skills, he had given up too many of the early rounds of the fight to get the win. Walters complained bitterly after the fight that he felt he had easily won, but the judges didn’t agree.
Walters will be a very tough fight for Lomachenko. Salido already created the blueprint in how to defeat Lomachenko by putting pressure on him and throwing body punches. If Walters can follow that same blue print, then he’d have a great chance of repeating Salido’s win.
Comments are closed.