By Allan Fox: WBA Super World featherweight champ Nicholas Walters (25-0, 21 KOs) will be back inside the ring next month to defend his WBA title against unbeaten #8 WBC, #13 IBF, #14 WBO Miguel Marriaga (20-0, 18 KOs) in a fight on HBO World Championship Boxing from Madison Square Garden in New York.
Walters, 29, is fighting for the first time since destroying former four division world champion Nonito Donaire in six rounds last year in October.
There are a lot of boxing fans excited about Walter’s talent since his win over Donaire last year. Walter’s showed a lot of punching power in that fight in beating one of the best fighters in the game. Before his win over Donaire, Walters destroyed Vic Darchinyan in five rounds last year in May in a one-sided fight. That victory got the attention of fans for the first time because it showed that Walters was for real.
The Colombian Marriaga has knocked out 12 out of his last 13 opponents in the last five years. However, those wins have come largely against weak opposition and we don’t really know how good or not so good Marriaga is. In his last four fights, Marriaga has beaten Carlos Fernando Perez Martinez, Christopher Martin, Marcos Cardenas and Mario Macias.
Marriaga should make it interesting for as long as it lasts against Walters because he’s clearly got good power, and an aggressive style of fighting. Walters was staggered by Donaire in their fight last year. If Marriaga can get to Walters’ chin, he might be able to do some damage as well. However, he’s going to have to get past Walters’ long jab for him to unload with his big power shots. The one thing that Marriaga has in his favor is his height. At 5’7″, Marriaga is the same height as Walters and this should give him a chance to land his power shots.
The fight that fans want to see is Walters face WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, but it looks like their mutual promoter Bob Arum wants to let the fight marinate longer before he eventually puts the two in with each other. Let’s hope that Arum doesn’t let the fight marinate too long because it could be ruined if he waits too long and we see one of them lose, or in the case of Lomachenko, lose again. Arum let a prospective fight between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez marinate too long four years ago it ended up being ruined when Lopez was beaten by Orlando Salido.
#3 WBA lightweight contender Felix Verdejo (17-0, 13 KOs) will be fighting Ivan Najera (16-0, 8 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the card.
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