By Paul Richardson: As predicted two-time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko (2-1, 1KO) dominated heavily hyped American Gary Russell jr. (24-1, 14KO’s) at the stub-hub centre in Carson, California last Saturday night. Lomachenko becomes only the second fighter in history to win a world title in his third pro fighter after Thailand’s Saensak Muangsurin in 1975.
The official scorecards of 114-114, 116-112, and 116-112 were puzzling to say the least as the skilled amateur veteran outclassed his opponent for almost the whole twelve rounds. Gary Russell’s flashy fast hands seemed to befuddle Lomachenko for perhaps the first half of the first round, but from then on was pretty much all Lomachenko. I think you really would have the be biased in favor of the 26 year old Maryland native to even give him three rounds.
By Paul Richardson: This Saturday night two time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist #4 WBO Vasyl Lomachenko (1-1, 1 KO) takes on flashy American #1 WBO Gary Russell Jr (24-0, 14 KO’s) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The fight is for the vacant WBO featherweight title which Orlando Salido lost on the scales before controversially outpointing Lomachenko by a 12 round split decision last March at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas in his previous fight.
By Paul Richardson: After Miguel Cotto’s very impressive 10th round stoppage victory over a clearly injured WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, a lot of talk has centered around a potential Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) match up. This would probably be a great fight, but in fact is quite unlikely to happen as Alvarez is very likely to be on the wrong end of a beat-down from the Cuban amateur stand-out Erislandy Lara in their fight next month on July 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.