Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jezreel Corrales possible for April

By Boxing News - 01/16/2017 - Comments

Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jezreel Corrales possible for April

By Jeff Aranow: Having no luck in getting Orlando Salido to bite on a rematch with WBO World super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs), Top Rank is looking to put together a unification fight between Lomachenko and the 25-year-old WBA Super World super featherweight champion Jezreel Corrales (21-1, 8 KOs) for April.

The Lomachenko vs. Corrales fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing if it gets made. The dates that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is looking at for the Lomachenko-Corrales fight is April 8th or 15th.

Arum said this to Fightnews.com about his plans for making the Lomachenko vs. Corrales fight in April on HBO:

“Lomachenko will fight on the 8th or 15th of April. We have not yet concluded the negotiations with his opponent, but most likely it will be a unification bout with Corrales” Arum said.

It should be an interesting fight for the boxing fans if it can get made. The Panamanian southpaw Corrales is coming off of back to back wins over former WBA super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama in 2016. Corrales stopped the big punching Uchiyama in the 2nd round in their first fight in April last years.

Corrales knocked Uchiyama down three times in round 2 of that fight before it was eventually stopped. In the Corrales-Uchiyama rematch last December, Corrales edged Uchiyama in winning a 12 round split decision. It looked like a clear win for Corrales. The fight took place in Uchiyama’s home country of Tokyo, Japan.

Lomachenko had a good year in 2016, beating Roman “Rocky” Martinez by a 5th round knockout to win the WBO super featherweight title last June, and then defeating unbeaten former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters by a 7th round stoppage last November in a defense of Lomachenko’s WBO title.

Corrales is a mobile fighter with excellent punching power. He doesn’t have blazing hand speed though. However, Salido proved that Lomachenko can be beaten by fighters that don’t have a lot of speed. Saido walked Lomachenko down and battered him to the body for 12 rounds. Corrales isn’t that type of fighter. He likes to move around the ring, and attack in spurts. He might be able to give Lomachenko problems with that style.