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.
By Matthias Predonzan: Approaching the end of 2016, it is the time for the traditional practice to determine the best and more unique moments in boxing, during the closing year.
This year we didn’t have a “fight of the Century”, like in 2015, with the long waited for – Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao – match.
By Chris Williams: For the right kind of money, Terence Crawford would be willing to move down three pounds to fight super featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko at 137 pounds, according to his trainer Brian McIntyre. The money would have to be good though. Both fighters are promoted by Top Rank, so there wouldn’t be a problem making the fight if there were interest from Lomachenko’s side.
Top Rank boss Bob Arum has spoken of matching Lomachenko and Crawford up against each other. Lomachenko will likely get a shot at Manny Pacquiao in 2017. Crawford is in a tough situation if he can’t get someone like Lomachenko. It doesn’t look like Crawford will ever fight Pacquiao. Crawford can probably forget about fights against Al Haymon fighters like Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Errol Spence Jr. or Keith Thurman.
By Chris Williams: Two-time Olympic gold medalist and current undefeated WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) says he wants to fight WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) at a catchweight. Rigondeaux saw how Lomachenko beat former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters last Saturday night, and he was not impressed.
Rigondeaux doesn’t like the way that Walters quit after the 7th round. He thinks he should have stayed in there and found a way to win. Rigondeaux also takes issue with how Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum was pouring compliments over his head after the win.
By Chris Williams: With Top Rank promoter Bob Arum talking about wanting to match super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko against Manny Pacquiao in 2017, another great fight that Arum needs to think about is putting Lomachenko in with WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford in the near future. There is only two divisions that separates Crawford and Lomachenko rather than three for Pacquiao-Lomachenko.
Since Arum really enjoys to mix and match his Top Rank stable fighters in club-like matches within his own promotional company, a fight between Crawford and Lomachenko would seem like a real no-brainer for the future. Once Arum matches Pacquiao against Lomachenko next year, depending on the outcome, he could then put Lomachenko in with Crawford or Tim Bradley.
By Allan Fox: If Manny Pacquiao wants to fight WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, he might need to drop down 12 pounds to face him at lightweight, because that’s the weight class that the Ukrainian fighter is willing to fight him at. Lomachenko says he wants to fight Pacquiao, but he wants the fight to take place at 135lbs.
Being that the 28-year-old Lomachenko isn’t in the position to be calling the shots in terms of weight for the Pacquiao fight, it’ll be interesting to see if his match ever takes place. Lomachenko is not a pay-per-view fighter, and the chances are that he may never get to that level unless he starts picking up more boxing fans.
By Eric Baldwin: Former Nicholas Walters knockout victim Nonito Donaire says Walter’s ‘No mas’ quit job he did last Saturday night against WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko was “shameful” and he can’t believe he actually did it.
For the boxing fans that didn’t get a chance to see the fight last Saturday night, Walters quit after the 7th round against Lomachenko in their fight at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was televised by HBO World Championship Boxing, and even the commentators for the network were surprised at Walters choosing to quit after the 7th round had ended.
By Chris Williams: Nicholas Walters (26-1-1, 21 KOs) is taking quite a bit of criticism since quitting after round 7 last Saturday night against WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, but according to his promoter Bob Arum, he told him he was hurt in the 7th. Walters took a left hand from Lomachenko to the head that had him hurt. Walters felt that he was going to be knocked out if he had continued fighting. That might sit right with some boxing fans, but you cannot blame Walters for continuing if he felt he no longer has any chance of winning.
Arum said this to ESPN.com about Walters telling him that he was hurt by Lomachenko in round seven:
“He told me he was going to get knocked out. He said he got really hurt,” Arum said.
By Dan Ambrose: Nicholas Walters was no competition last night for WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, who did a superb job of out-classing him until the former featherweight world champion quit after the 7th round had ended at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Walters had experienced enough one-way punishment at the hands of the skillful Lomachenko, and he didn’t want any part of going any further. After the match had ended, Lomachenko made it clear that he wants to fight a unification match against WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas.