Lomachenko-Walters fight has Arum excited

By Boxing News - 09/28/2016 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: After the previous failed negotiations for a super fight, WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs) and Nicholas Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) were finally able to get a fight put together for them to face each other on November 26 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes that the 28-year-old Lomachenko is the best fighter in boxing. I’m not sure if the facts bear that out. Lomachenko is a good fighter, but up until recently, he was more of a boxer rather than a puncher. Arum sees Lomachenko as a puncher now, and I still don’t think that’s accurate. We’ll have to see.

Arum says he was able to get the 30-year-old Walters to agree to the Lomachenko for a little bit more than the offer that he had for him during their previously negotiations. You have to wonder whether the fact that Walters has been out of the ring for almost a year since his last fight against Jason Sosa helped make his decision to sign for the fight. Walters fought Sosa to a 10 round draw last December, and he’s not fought since.

“What changed now is Nicholas Walters agreed to the purse we were offering, which was slightly more than we did last time,” said Arum. “Nicholas Walters is a hell of a fighter. I think Lomachenko is the best fighter in the world. He’s a wonderful technician, who really excited the crowd with his punching power. I love the fight. It’s what people want – competitive fights.”

Lomachenko-Walters have the makings for a good fight, but it remains to be seen whether it will live up to the billing. We saw how Lomachenko resorted to grabbing all night long in his fight against Orlando Salido to keep the Mexican fighter from hitting him with body shots. That was the last high quality opponent that Lomachenko fought other than Roman Martinez, who he faced last June in stopping him in the 5th round.

Martinez had been through four grueling fights in the last three years by the time he fought Lomachenko, and I don’t think he was the same fresh fighter that he’d been before he took those fights in a short period of time. If Lomachenko is still the same fighter that clinched all night long in his 12 round decision loss to Salido in 2014, then we could be in for a really dull fight on November 26 if Walters starts hitting him with body shots.

I don’t see Lomachenko as the best fighter in boxing. On the contrary, I don’t see Lomachenko as even being the best fighter in the super featherweight division. He was already exposed by Orlando Salido, and he’s done nothing to show that he’s improved since then. The match-making has definitely helped Lomachenko since his loss to Salido, but I don’t see any improvements in his game. I think Salido and Francisco Vargas both beat Lomachenko. You have to give Walters a great chance of beating Lomachenko too if he can catch up to him to force him to fight on November 26. I hope Walters doesn’t have to chase Lomachenko or deal with his holding all night.