By Dan Ambrose: WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (3-1-1, 1 KO) will be making his second defense of his World Boxing Organization 126 pound title this Saturday night against his #1 WBO challenger Gamalier Rodriguez (25-2-3, 17 KOs) in a 12 round bout on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight card from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While the 28-year-old Rodriguez is technically ranked #1 at WBO, he’s really over-matched in this fight because he does not have nearly the same kind of skills that the 27-year-old, 2-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko has.
Rodriguez is a guy who the WBO has given a very, very favorable ranking to, but who has never faced anyone during his eight-year pro career that you can call a good fighter.
Rodriguez’s record is totally padded from what I can see. There’s no quality there, so it’s not surprising that he has a 25-2 record. But even against the weak guys he’s faced, Rodriguez has still been beaten a couple of times with three draws. That’s not good, at least not good for the fans eager to see a competitive fight. This won’t be competitive. Lomachenko is way better, and the WBO should have done a better job ranking. Abner Mares and Jayson Velez are arguably a lot better than Rodriguez, yet the WBO has Rodriguez ranked above them both.
“This is an opportunity to show everyone what I’m capable of doing and for millions of viewers to see that I can do it,” said Lomachenko via Fightness.com. “The best fighters get the best opportunities in the ring, there are a lot of great fighters getting those opportunities including myself. It’s always a good feeling when people are saying good things about you. I’m very excited to be involved in a bout such as this one, May 2 will be a big show shown around the world. I’m very happy to be in the opening bout for this huge fight.”
In Lomachenko’s last fight in November of 2014, he defeated Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision. At the time, Piriyapinyo was ranked No.1 by the WBO, but he clearly didn’t belong there and he offered up no competition at all for Lomachenko.
Rodriguez has been beaten in the past by David Rodela and Juan Garcia. He also has draws against Enrique Quinones, Edwin Lopez and Eric Cruz.
Lomachenko will likely score a knockout against Rodriguez on Saturday unless Rodriguez looks to go in the survival mode early on when he realizes he has no chance of winning.
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