Lomachenko-Walters: Does Nicholas need a KO to win?

By Boxing News - 11/23/2016 - Comments

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By Allan Fox: Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) is coming into this Saturday’s fight against WBO upper featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs) as the undercard and in a tough situation in facing one of Top Rank’s rising stars.

Walters is kind of in a bad situation in taking on the 28-year-old Lomachenko, because he’s the clear B-side in this fight, and that’s not a good position for him. Walters, 30, is not accustomed to being the underdog in his fights, so it’s interesting that he’s now in position where he’s expected to lose the fight.

The big question is can Walters win a decision against Lomachenko, who his promoters at Top Rank highly value. Does Walters need a knockout to get a win over Lomachenko or will the judges still give him the victory if he shows he’s the better fighter on Saturday night in their fight on HBO Championship Boxing?

We would surely hope that we don’t see awful controversial decision on Saturday night, because the sport needs a break from controversial decisions right now. The judges need score this fight to where the boxing fans agree with it rather than it being yet another oddball scoring of the fight.

The boxing world saw two highly controversial decisions last Saturday night on HBO PPV involving the Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev and Maurice Hooker vs. Darleys Perez fights. In both of those fights, the guys that appeared to lose dodged defeats with controversial scoring.

Walters said this about his fight this Saturday night against Lomachenko:

“There will be no Thanksgiving weekend pardon for that turkey Vasyl Lomachenko. I’m going to carve him up on November 26 at the Cosmopolitan. Live on HBO.”

Lomachneko is a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine. He’s not from the U.S, so there’s no reason why there would be any possibility of a hometown decision. However, Lomachenko is the champion, and he is the one who is receiving a big push from his promoters at Top Rank. Bob Arum, the boss of Top Rank, is talking about wanting to Lomachenko in with Manny Pacquiao in 2017. That’s heavy pressure, because the fight might bring in a lot of money to Las Vegas if Arum chooses to stage the fight there.

It’s a fight that helps Las Vegas by bringing a lot of fans in like it’s a high tide on the beach. Since Arum likes to do a lot of in house fights involving his Top Rank fighters, Lomachenko is one of the last viable options Arum has other than retreat opponents like Tim Bradley, Jessie Vargas and Brandon Rios. The other option Arum has for Pacquiao in his stable is Terence Crawford. It’s pretty obvious that Crawford and Lomachenko have a great chance of fighting Pacquiao in 2017. But for Lomachenko, he’s got to beat Walters on Saturday to remain in the picture for the Pacquiao fight.

I don’t think it matters too much whether Lomachenko looks good or not. Just long as he gets the win over Walters, it’s all that matters. Arum can then stuck Lomachenko in with Pacquiao and put the fight on HBO PPV and watch maybe 300,000 boxing fans purchase it. Unfortunately, Pacquiao vs. Lomachenko isn’t a big fight. It’s more of a big fight for Top Rank, because it will built Lomachenko into a bigger name in boxing. But it’s not likely a big money fight, because Lomachenko is not a household name with casual fans. He’s just known by the hardcore fans in the U.S. But before Arum can stick Lomachenko in with Pacquiao, he needs to beat Nicholas Walters this Saturday. That’s a must.

Arum might end up putting Lomachenko in with Pacquiao anyway, even if he loses to Walters on Saturday. I think it would look bad if Arum still matches Lomachenko with Pacquiao rather than Walters if he loses to the Jamaican fighter on Saturday because the fair thing for Arum to do would be to match Walters against Pacquiao if he’s able to beat Lomachenko. I don’t see Arum doing that though. I only think Lomachenko has a chance to fight Pacquiao and not Walters. I don’t know why it would be like that, but I don’t see Arum letting Walters anywhere near Pacquiao if he gets past Lomachenko. We saw a similar situation recently with Golden Boy Promotions. They had a fight between middleweights Gabriel Rosado and Willie Monroe Jr. fight it out on the undercard of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith card on September 17 on HBO pay-per-view.

The winner of the Rosado-Monroe Jr. fight was presumably supposed to get a fight against Canelo. However, after Monroe Jr. won the fight against Rosado, he didn’t get the fight with Canelo. The Mexican star’s trainer said that Canelo wouldn’t be fighting Monroe Jr. From what I’m hearing, only Lomachenko has a chance of getting the fight against Pacquiao, not Walters.

“Even Muhammad Ali lost fights. I don’t think this is a different Lomachenko from the guy that lost to Salido,” said Walters. “He is the same Lomachenko. They say a leopard cannot change his spots right? Since he did lose to Salido, he can be as technical all he wants, but I am in the hurt business. This is a gladiator sport and I fight all of my fights like that, I fight like a gladiator. He can come in with his technical fight on Saturday and I am going to be up for it and put on a helluva show on Saturday night.”

Walters is right. Even Ali lost. As technical as Lomachenko is as a fighter, he still lost to Orlando Salido two years ago. Salido didn’t beat Lomachenko because he was heavier than him. Salido beat Lomachenko by pressuring him for 12 rounds and hitting him with a lot of body shots, which he hadn’t been dealing as an amateur fighter.

There was nothing complicated that Salido did to get the win over Lomachenko. He just made sure to attack Lomachenko for three minutes of every round with his body shots. By the last quarter of the fight, Lomachenko was like a human octopus with the way he was holding onto Salido to try and keep him from throwing more body punches.