By Chris Williams: WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs) could be suffering his first knockout defeat of his career this Saturday when he faces former WBA 126lb champion Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) on HBO Boxing at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Walters is predicting a knockout win over Lomachenko. He’s not saying which round he’ll be knocking out the two-time Olympic gold medalist, but he definitely is picking himself to win by a KO.
Walters doesn’t care that his promoter Bob Arum has been looking past this fight on Saturday by taking up a potential fight between Lomachenko and Manny Pacquiao in 2017. All Walter knows is that he’s going to be the one winning the fight on Saturday.
Walters then will speak with his promoter about what’s next for him as far as big fights. It’s troubling that Arum isn’t speaking about the potential of putting Walters in with Pacquiao too, because it would seem like the fair thing to do. If Lomachenko has a chance of fighting Pacquiao if he wins on Saturday, then Walters should have the chance too.
Walters said this to Secondsout.com about his fight against Lomachenko:
“Come Saturday, it doesn’t matter what I say,” said Walters. “I have to go into the ring and prove it. He has to go into the ring and prove it. He’s been saying I’ve been beating up smaller guys. When he’s saying I’m beating up little guys, but he’s a little guy also. I’m a little guy. I’m not 160 fighting featherweights. I’m a featherweight fighting featherweights. Let’s see what happens on the 26th, and then we can talk about it. It was the same thing that was said with Walters and Nonito. Guys came into the gym and said, ‘You just can’t win.’ My response was ‘I’m not only going to beat him, I’m going to knock him out.’ People pick Lomachenko to win this fight. That’s their judgment. That’s their belief. That’s their feelings. I’m picking Axe Man to win the fight. I’m not only picking Axe Man to win the fight, but I’m picking Axe man to knock him out. I’m going in and I’m well ready for this fight. I’m in great condition. I’m on weight and everything. Why wouldn’t I be picking the Axe Man? The Axe Man is throwing with both hands. The axe-man is very intelligent. The Axe Man has speed, power, everything. The Axe Man for me is the better fighter on the 26th. Let’s take care of business on the 26th, and let’s see what my promoter has in store for me. I’m not predicting a round. I’m fighting every round intelligently with style and technique. We’ll definitely be trying to knock him out.”
It’s pretty important that Walters is on weight for this fight, because he lost his WBA featherweight title last year in June 2015 when he failed to make weight for his fight against Miguel Marriaga. Walters lost his title on the scales my coming in one pound over the featherweight limit at 127. Walters still easily beat Marriaga by a 12 round unanimous decision, but he lost his title none the less. Walters then moved up in weight and fought to a 10 round draw in his last fight against Jason Sosa last December.
The Lomachenko-Walters fight is expected to be a sellout on Saturday. That’s great news, because it shows that the boxing fans are interested in seeing these two top super featherweights face each other. If the fight is big enough, it’s possible there could be a rematch, especially if Lomachenko loses. It would be bad for his career if Lomachenko moved on from a defeat rather than facing Walters a second time to try and avenge the loss.
“This fight gets us to million-dollar {purses], that’s what we want,” Walters said. “The Axe Man is going to show he’s a real crusher. Each fight is different. Only a fool doesn’t learn from his mistakes. I’m undefeated. He still has a loss, a blemish.“
If Walters can knockout Lomachenko, then it’s going to shock the boxing world in a big way, because there are many fans that feel that Lomachenko is too good to be beaten right now by the likes of Lomachenko. Top Rank will win regardless of who comes out on top in this fight. Since they promote both guys, they’ll be just fine if Walters wins. However, it will potentially upset Arum’s plans for putting Lomachenko in with Pacquiao. Arum can obviously still go ahead and match the two fighters together if Lomachenko loses.
We’ve seen Arum match Pacquiao against guys in the past that were coming off of defeats. However, that was back when Pacquiao was bringing in more pay-per-view buys on a routine basis. It didn’t matter who Pacquiao fought in the past. He could fight anybody, and the fight would bring in tons of buys on PPV. Things have changed now though. Pacquiao needs popular fighters to face him in order to bring in a lot of buys.
If Lomachenko loses to Walters, the boxing public is likely not going to be interested in seeing a fight between Pacquiao and Lomachenko. They’ll want someone different. Arum can’ trot Tim Bradley out again and expect the fans to want to purchase that fight for the fourth time. If Arum sticks Lomachenko in with Pacquiao anyway, then the fans likely won’t wnt to pay to see that mismatch.
Last Saturday’s pay-per-view fight between IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Andre “SOG” Ward replay will precede the Lomachenko vs. Walters fight on HBO Championship Boxing.
“Lomachenko is not a different guy from the one who lost to Salido,” Walters said. “He can be technical all he wants. I’m in hurt business.”
“We’ll be on weight,” said Walters.
It’s good news that Walters will make weight, because if he misses the weight, he won’t get credit if he beats Lomachenko. We saw how Orlando Salido was never given credit for beating Lomachenko in 2014 after he failed to make weight for their fight. I can see the same thing happening with Walters. The thing is the boxing fans are going to figure out sooner or later that Lomachenko isn’t as good as some people think he is.