By Dan Ambrose: WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs) is seen by many boxing fans as the underdog going into his title defense this Saturday night against two-time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) for their fight on HBO at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Martinez and Lomachenko share a common opponent in Orlando Salido, who Martinez has a 1-0-1 record against and Lomachenko a loss to him. However, Martinez clearly lost to Salido last September in their fight that was scored a 12 round draw.
Martinez not only lost that fight to Salido in the minds of many fans, but he also took quite a beating. That’s one of the reasons why Martinez could be out of his element against Lomachenko. Martinez is facing another very good fighter after having been through two back to back grueling fights against Salido last year.
The first fight with Salido took a lot out of Martinez despite the fact that he won thanks to a point deduction in the 11th from Salido for low blows, and knockdowns in the 3rd and 5th. If you take away those three events in the fight, Salido was the better fighter in that contest. Martinez was worked over by Salido in the majority of the rounds.
Martinez, 33, says they’ve been working on a plan to negate the movement and the speed for the 28-year-old Lomachenko. It’s quite likely the plan is to not give Lomachenko any space. Salido was able to stay on top of Lomachenko in their fight in 2014 by following after him when he would retreat. Salido didn’t allow Lomachenko to escape his pressure the way that most of Lomachenko’s have in his pro career.
“Among Lomachenko, strengths are his speed and movement, and we are working on all those aspects to counter it,” said Martinez to ringtv.com. “We will fight again on HBO, facing a good fighter as Lomachenko, for which we are training to be in the best condition. I’m training to win by KO or decision. We know of his boxing skills but we are working for that. I’m an experienced boxer and I’m going to use that experience on June 11.”
Martinez is going to need to use the experience from Salido rather than his own if he wants to defeat Lomachenko, because his slow upright fighting style is made to order for Lomachenko. The Ukrainian fighter does well against the stationary fighters like Martinez, because he can move in and out, and pick his spots to land quick shots and then flee. If Martinez is smart, he’ll have studied Salido’s win over Lomachenko backwards and forwards and will use that as a model for how he should fight him.
Salido isn’t given much credit by some boxing fans for his win over Lomachenko because he had a weight advantage over him, but the reality is, he was better than Lomachenko. He beat him with body shots and constant pressure. Lomachenko couldn’t handle the pressure or the body shots from Salido, as he was forced to hold frequently for 12 round solid rounds.
Lomachenko was very lucky he didn’t get disqualified in that fight for his holding because it was excessive and it got in the way of Salido being able to fight in a normal way. It wasn’t because Salido was heavier than him that Lomachenko was holding. He was holding because Salido had taken the air out of his tires with his body shots and his relentless pressure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxcecI66Na4
Lomachenko will probably win this fight over Martinez simply because he’ll be able to land his shots and easily get away. Martinez plods around the ring like he’s on stilts and he’s never been good at cutting off the ring. Martinez has done well in his career because most of his opposition has come straight at him and stood in front of him. Lomachenko won’t do that, which is why we’re going to see Martinez get a boxing lesson in this fight.
The undercard for the Martinez-Lomachenko card isn’t much to speak of. It consists of two A-side fighters matched against guys with next to no chance of winning. Unbeaten lightweight contender Felix Verdejo will be defending his WBO Latino title against Juan Jose Martinez in a 10 round fight. That’ll be an easy win for the A-side fighter Verdejo. The off television fight between two-time Chinese Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming and Jozsef Ajtai will be another fight where the A-side guy – Shiming – will almost surely win.