By Allan Fox: WBO World super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) made weight on Friday in coming in at 129.6 pounds for his title defense against former WBA World champion Jason Sosa (20-1-4, 15 KOs) on Saturday night on April 8 at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The Lomachenko-Sosa fight card will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. Sosa came in over the limit at 130.2 lbs.
By Jim Dower: Unbeaten WBO cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (11-0, 10 KOs) will be defending his title against unbeaten 2012 Olympian Michael Hunter (12-0, 8 KOs) on April 8 on the undercard of the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jason Sosa at the Theater at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, MD. The fights will be on HBO Championship Boxing.
Also on the card is unbeaten #6 WBO, #6 WBC, #7 IBF light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozyk (12-0, 10 KOs) facing Yunieski Gonzalez (18-2, 14 KOs) in a 10 round fight. All three of these fights – Lomachenko vs. Sosa, Usyk vs. Hunter and Gvozdyk vs. Gonzalez – will be televised on HBO Boxing. It should be a great televised card for the fans. It’s definitely be one of the best card on regular HBO that’s for sure.
By Allan Fox: WBO cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, 9 KOs) will be fighting this Saturday night against Thabiso Mchunu (17-2, 11 KOs) on the Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Smith Jr. card on HBO Boxing from the Forum in Inglewood, California. 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk is looking to become a star in the U.S, which is why he’s focusing on fighting there now.
Usyk will be looking to make easy work of Mchunu on Saturday night. This is the perfect showcase fight for Usyk to show the boxing world what he can do against a cruiserweight with a Mayweather-esque fighting style, as Mchunu fights a lot like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
By Eric Baldwin: Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) will be putting a cap on his career this Saturday night on December 17 in facing light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs) in a 12 round bout at the Forum in Inglewood, California. HBO Championship Boxing will be televising the card.
The co-feature fight between WBO cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, 9 KOs) and Thabiso Mchunu (17-2, 11 KOs) might ultimately provide more entertainment for the boxing public, however. That fight looks to be a competitive one on paper, as long as Usyk mixes it up more than he did in his recent 12 round unanimous decision win over Krzystof Glowacki last September.
By Gav Duthie: The conveyer belt of special talent from Eastern Europe doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. There are two fantastic prospects looking to breathe life into one of boxing’s least popular divisions, cruiserweight.
Despite increasing the Cruiser limit from 190lb-200lbs in recent years in a category that theoretically should possess the perfect blend between size, speed and power it has never really succeeded in comparison to its marketing potential.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank has reportedly signed former two-time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko to a long term contract. Lomachenko, still only 25, captured gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics in dominating his overmatched opposition.