By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says his fighter Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) will be fighting three times in 2017, and moving up to the lightweight division at the end of the year. Just how Arum knows this is the big question.
Did the 28-year-old Lomachenko tell him or is this just wishful thinking on the part of the 85-year-old promoter.
By Matthias Predonzan: Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia is now definitely back on track to become a top list – lb for lb- fighter, after the brilliant performance he put together in his fight against the Montenegrin puncher Dejan Zlaticanin.
If on one side Mikey’s brother Robert was right, saying that the new Lightweight World Champion was stronger and faster than ever in the new weight class and the two and half years long forced inactivity were not a problem – because Mikey actually never stopped training and sparring – on the other hand it is hard to completely agree with these statements because the level of his opponent was not at elite one.
By Chris Williams: WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) will be facing WBA World champion Jason Sosa (20-1-4, 15 KOs) in a unification fight on April 8 on HBO at the MGM National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Dan Rafael is reporting the news. It’s a good fight for the 28-year-old Lomachenko, because Sosa is a tough fighter that has been active recently. He’s not all beaten up like Roman Martinez was going into his fight against Lomachenko last June, and he’s not coming off of a long 11-month layoff like Lomachenko’s last opponent Nicholas Walters was when they fought each other last December.
By Matthias Predonzan: Just a few hours from the fight against WBC Lightweight World Champion, Dejan Zlaticanin, Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia is on the verge to regain his spot in the elite level of professional boxing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His past promotional issues that kept him away from fighting for more than two years were, similarly to Andre Ward, risking compromising the fighter career and equally important, risking to deprive the sport of boxing of one of his best assets.
By Gav Duthie: Its only January but 2017 is shaping up to be a fantastic year already. We have already seen a cracking unification bout between Badou Jack and James Degale, Joshua v Klitschko has sold over 80,000 tickets, Canelo v Chavez Jnr will likely do the same. The #1 and #2 middleweights Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs are signed to fight but one of the fights I’m looking forward to most is the rematch between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz. To make 2017 a top year here are 5 other rematches I would like to see happen.
Vasyl Lomachenko 7-1 (5) v Orlando Salido 43-13-4 (30)
By Eric Baldwin: The working date for the unification fight between WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and WBA champion Jezreel Corrales is April 8, according to Top Rank president Todd duBoef. The fight will be televised on HBO. The deal still hasn’t been officially made for the Lomachenko-Corrales fight, but it’s expected to be.
Corrales wasn’t the first choice for Lomachenko. He was interested in facing Orlando Salido to try and avenge his loss to him from 2014. Salido chose not to take the fight. It’s unclear what led to him turning I down, but it might have had to do with money. Salido is going to be facing WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas in a rematch, and he’ll make good money fighting him again.Those two fought to an exciting 12 round draw last year.
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.
By Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Orlando Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs) won’t be facing WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) in a rematch despite the interest from the Ukrainian fighter and his promoter Bob Arum.
Salido, 36, doesn’t like the idea of fighting someone that is going to be running and holding all night long, which is what Lomachenko did all night in their previous encounter two years ago in 2014, Salido beat Lomachenko by a 12 round split decision in a fight for the vacant WBO World featherweight title.
By Sam Holderness: Who is the true Fighter of the Year for 2016? It seems that the press across the board has two main contenders for their fighter of the year, the undefeated Irishman Carl “The Jackal” Frampton or the Ukrainian technicians Vasyl Lomachenko.
Though both fighters are incredibly worthy of the imaginary yet prestigious title, I would like to spend this time to pose why I believe Lomachenko is the should be the winner, if all be it only by a small margin.
By Chris Williams: Much has been made about WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) being the guy that should be given the 2016 Fighter of the Year award, but I see WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) as being much more deserving of the award this year than him.
If you compare the wins that Lomachenko has racked up this year to that of Crawford’s, it’s clear that Lomachenko got the far better wins. Lomachenko has fought the better opposition and looked great in winning. Crawford only has one good win over quality opposition in beating WBO light welterweight champion Viktor Postol by a mostly boring 12 round decision. Crawford’s other two wins came over fringe level contender Hank Lundy and 33-year-old John Molina, who arguably didn’t rate the HIGH #2 ranking that the World Boxing Organization had for him at the time of their fight.