By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly working on putting together a fight between his two stable fighters WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) and super featherweight contender Nicholas Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) for April 30, according to Fight News.
The fight might not be taking place on HBO. As reported earlier this week, the 84-year-old Arum is shopping the Lomachenko-Walters fight on Showtime. It seems HBO isn’t all that excited about the fight.
By Tim Fletcher: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says a fight between WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) and former WBA Super World featherweight champion Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) is done, and he’s now just looking for a network to televise the fight.
It’s hard to imagine HBO turning down such a great fight like this. Walters, 30, lost his WBA 126lb title last year in June 2015, when he came in one-pound overweight for his title defense against Miguel Marriaga. Walters still easily won the fight by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, but he lost his WBA title due to him coming in overweight.
By Jim Dower: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) stopped an over-matched Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) in the 9th round on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley knocked the 170lb Rios down twice with body shots in the 9th to get the stoppage. Rios looked tired, embarrassed and hurt ad the fight was halted by referee Tony Weeks at 2:49 of the 9th.
Rios said immediately after the fight that he plans on retiring from the sport. As bad as Rios looked tonight, you can’t blame him. He had been out of action for 10 months going into tonight’s fight, and he sure looked like it.
By Jim Dower: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) will be getting the lion’s share of the revenue for Saturday’s fight against challenger Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley, 32, will be getting $1.9 million compared to Rios’ $800,000.
It’s unclear if those purses will be bumped up with other money. It’s not PPV, so it doesn’t look like there will be any other revenue the fighters get.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfTZ7xXAm7k
By Gerardo Granados: Yesterday I read a couple of interesting articles related to Lomachenko boxing paint artist goal, which made me wonder if the boxing purists like Jose Eduardo Sanchez would include us in the debate or if they would claim to have the only valid opinion on the subject.
If Vasyl aims to become a boxing artist like Floyd Mayweather Jr he could struggle as Guillermo Rigondeaux, but if Lomachenko does understand the business side of “prize fighting” then in deed he could become pleasure to watch.
By Dan Ambrose: WBO World featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) will be making his third defense of his WBO 126lb title two months from now against #8 WBO contender Romulo Koasicha (25-4, 15 KOs) in what has to be seen as a poor mismatch on HBO Championship Boxing from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Lomachenko- Koasicha will be the co-feature on the Timothy Bradley vs. Brandon Rios card, but in truth this fight should more like the first bout on the card and nowhere near the co-feature.
By Dan Ambrose: Despite taking a frightful beating last Saturday night to unbeaten former two division world champion Leo Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs) in losing a 12 round majority decision, 29-year-old Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) says he’s willing to get back inside the ring to face the likes of Santa Cruz again, or WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko or former WBA Super World featherweight champion Nicholas Walters. It depends on who his adviser Al Haymon wants Mares to fight.
Mares lost the fight to Santa Cruz by the scores of 114-114, 117-111 and 117-111. Mares was fortunate that the scores of the fight was even that close because you can argue that Mares should have lost by a wider set of scores.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is interested in matching his fighter WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) against WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10 KOs) for later this year.
Arum figures that the Cuban Rigondeaux has the kind of talent to give Lomachenko his toughest test. Thus far, Lomachenko has been beaten only once in his career by Mexican warrior Orlando Salido last year when he pounded out a 12 round split decision after punishing Lomachenko with body shots all fight long.
By Allan Fox: A fight between WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10 KOs) and WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) is in the works. Rigondeaux’s manager Gary Hyde has reportedly accepted an offer by Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas for a catch-weight fight at 124 pounds.
Rigondeaux, 34, would be moving up in weight four pounds, while Lomachenko would be coming down in weight two pounds from the 126 featherweight limit. The fight would be in the featherweight division, as the weight class is from 123 to 126. Whether the fight can be made or not will hinge on whether Klimas and Lomachenko agree to a rehydration limit of 135 pounds, which means Lomachenko and Rigondeaux wouldn’t be able to gain more than 11lbs when they rehydrate after making weight for the 124lb catch-weight.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) will be back in action in October or November against possibly former WBA featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (27-3, 16 KOs) or IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby (21-1, 8 KOs), according to Dan Rafael.
Egis Klimas, the manager for Lomachenko, would especially like to match Lomachenko up against the 28-year-old Selby, who stopped Evgeny Gradovich in the 8th round in their fight on May 30th. That was a cut stoppage, as Selby accidently bumped heads with Gradovich and opened up a big cut over his right eye.