(Photo credit: David Infante @787Films/Team Dulorme) By Allan Fox: Former light welterweight world title challenger Thomas Dulorme (22-2, 14 KOs) will be returning to the ring this Saturday night on June 18 in facing 28-year-old journeyman Jesus Gurrola (22-8-3, 10 KOs) in an eight-round bout at the Pabellón de la Feria, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Dulorme will be moving back up to 147 for this fight. Dulorme previously fought at welterweight until getting knocked out by Luis Carlos Abregu in October 2012.
Dulorme, 26, hasn’t fought since being stopped in the 6th round by Terence Crawford last year in April 2015 in a failed attempt to win the vacant WBO light welterweight title in Arlington, Texas. Dulorme gave Crawford problems in rounds one through five. However, things fell apart for Dulorme in round six, when Crawford knocked him down three times in the process of knocking him out. That loss for Dulorme had to be a bitter pill for him to swallow because he had won his previous six fights after having been stopped in the 7th round by Argentinian slugger Abregu.
The Puerto Rican Dulorme turned pro in 2008 with a ton of hype about him in the same way that lightweight Felix Verdejo is being hyped right now. When Dulorme’s management tried to have him step up against Abregu, he proved to not be ready. When they attempted to step him up again after he put together six wins, he fell apart a second time in losing to Crawford. The year that Dulorme has spent out of the ring probably isn’t a good thing because he’s now going to be dealing with rust on top of his other problems that led to his previous knockout losses. Dulorme clearly needs help with his defensive skills, but he’s not going to get that help by staying outside of the ring and not fighting.
“Right now I’m a free agent. This bout marks my return at the welterweight division, where I first started my career and was ranked as one of the best in the world. Now you can expect a stronger and faster boxer. At the Jr. welterweight division, I was ranked in the top positions too, but it was difficult for me to make weight,” said Dulorme. “At this stage of my career, I feel very good both mentally and physically to get back to the winning route. Now after this fight, we will be looking for better options.”
Roman Martinez vs. Vasyl Lomachenko fight to be replayed tonight on HBO
HBO will be televising a replay tonight of last Saturday’s title fight between WBC super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-3-3, 17 KOs) and Vasyl Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs). HBO’s replay will start at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.
The Martinez-Lomachenko took place at Madison Square Garden in New York last Saturday night and was televised on HBO Boxing After Dark. Lomachenko destroyed the 33-year-old Martinez in knocking him out in the 5th round of a one-sided fight. In hindsight, Martinez should have turned down the Lomachenko fight when it was offered to him by his promoters at Top Rank. Martinez would have been better off defending his WBO title against Orlando Salido in a third fight or against Miguel Berchet. Those would have been straight up slugging matches that Martinez would have had a decent chance of winning.
Martinez is made to slug, and Lomachenko is a boxer/puncher with a crafty fighting style that is hard to figure out. It might have been pride that led to Martinez taking the fight with Lomachenko, because the money that he made likely wasn’t any better than what he would have received for a third fight against Salido or a fight against Berchet.
I need more fights to get better,” said Lomachenko. ”I want more fights to make history. Line up all the top fighters and let’s find out who is the best.”
Lomachenko’s promoters at Top Rank would like to keep him busy if they can, but they by getting him as many fights that they can so they can show the boxing public how good he is. However, it might be tough for Lomachenko to get enough exposure for him to become a star given HBO’s lack of available dates in 2016 due to budget constraints. If Lomachenko wants to fight frequently, he may need to do it off television. I’m sure that’s not what Lomachenko has in mind.