Lomachenko vs. Walters: Top Storylines as Title Fight Looms
Vasyl Lomachenko is set to defend his WBO Super Featherweight Championship against former featherweight titlist Nicholas Walters Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
It's the second consecutive week of high-level boxing presented by HBO to close out the year.
Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KO) is one of the most decorated amateur fighters in history and thumped Roman "Rocky" Martinez to win his second world championship at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in June. He's the total package and one of boxing's fastest-rising stars.
But this could be his most dangerous foe yet.
Walters (26-0-1, 21 KO) is known for his huge punching power. You don't get a nickname like the "Axe Man" without having some serious chopping force on your punches. The question will be whether he'll be able to make that power count against a fighter as precise and technically strong as Lomachenko.
Let's take a look at the top storylines ahead of this huge fight!
Is This Lomachenko's Toughest Challenge to Date?
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Lomachenko is a special fighter who has excelled no matter what challenges were placed before him.
He's a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Ukraine—quite possibly the greatest amateur fighter of all time—and has won six of his seven pro outings to go along with two world championships in as many weight classes.
The lone blemish on his professional ledger came from a rough-and-tumble affair against wily Mexican warrior Orlando Salido in just his second start. And there were a ton of questions surrounding the circumstances of that fight.
Salido won a just verdict—yes—but he seemingly made no attempt to make weight and took tremendous liberties with the rules by fouling Lomachenko in every single round without much consequence. Chalk that one up as a hard learning experience.
Since then, no one has even challenged Lomachenko.
He easily dispatched much-hyped Gary Russell Jr. to win a vacant featherweight belt in his next fight (tying the record for fastest to a world title) and added a couple of ho-hum opponents to his resume before shredding Martinez for a second title this past June.
It has come easy so far.
Walters with his big punching power and underrated skill will break that mold and challenge Lomachenko in a way we haven't yet seen. He's still the favorite, but this is a dangerous fight.
Can the Axe Man Chop Down This Tree?
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Walters is a no-joke opponent.
He's the kind of guy who will put you to sleep if you sleep on him.
The Axe Man developed something of a reputation as a one-trick pony early in his career. He has tremendous raw athleticism and punching power, but a lot of people dramatically underrated his boxing skill. This isn't a guy who walks in there swinging for the fences and hoping to land the home run shot.
Walters showed in a convincing stoppage win over Nonito Donaire—still a quality fighter—late in 2014 that he can box effectively and set up his power shots if they aren't immediately there for the taking. That will be crucial if he hopes to have a chance against Lomachenko.
The Ukrainian is a master of time and space.
His footwork is the best in the game today, and he's adept at making his opponents look foolish. They stalk him around the ring and get nothing in return but popped in the face with hard counters from every conceivable angle.
Walters will need to find ways to keep the space of the fight where he needs it and make his big power decisive if he hopes to score what would have to be considered an upset, even if not a huge one.
Where Will the Winner Rank Pound for Pound?
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Is it crazy to say that a Lomachenko win—particularly a convincing one—would shoot him into the top five of the sport's mythical pound-for-pound rankings?
He ranks No. 7 on The Ring Magazine list and No. 8 on ESPN, so a jump of a couple of spots is definitely doable, right?
Remember, a P4P list isn't supposed to be based on accomplishment, though Lomachenko would have plenty of that with wins over Russell, Martinez and Walters.
It's supposed to be the best fighters in the sport regardless of weight.
And on that measure, Lomachenko would easily rank in the top five with a win here.
He might already be, to be honest.
The stakes are equally high for the Axe Man.
Walters has been on the shelf for nearly one year since getting saddled with a disputed draw against Jason Sosa last December. He won that fight, regardless of what the official scorecards said.
But you would have to figure he'd make a pretty big jump and into the top 10 on most lists if he can unseat one of boxing's fastest-rising stars.
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Can This Be the Best Fight of the Year?
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No, we're not asking if it will be Fight of the Year.
That question gets asked far too often.
And, besides, we've all pretty much agreed that Salido vs. Francisco Vargas locked up that honor several months back when they engaged in one of the more vicious prizefights you'll ever see. It's hard to match that level of pure brutality over 36 minutes.
But Lomachenko-Walters has the potential to provide the type of intrigue somewhere on the level of what Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward delivered the week prior just a stone's throw up the Las Vegas Strip.
It's a high-level matchup between two elite fighters in their division.
Is it quite the 50-50 of last weekend?
No, but it's close enough to make it an interesting fight where nobody would be shocked about the outcome. It's the exact type of fight that HBO needed to close out what has been a trying year for a network known for its quality boxing programming.
It has a lot to live up to now that Kovalev and Ward have put on one of the greatest high-level boxing matches in the recent history of the sport, but even if it comes up just short, it could still be great.
Does Manny Pacquiao Loom in the Future?
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Bob Arum, who promotes both Lomachenko and Walters, told FightHub (h/t Bad Left Hook) back in October that the one fight he's interested is Lomachenko vs. Manny Pacquiao at either 135 or 140 pounds.
Who wouldn't want to see that fight?
The big question (isn't there always on in boxing?) is about weight.
Freddie Roach doesn't want his fighter going down to lightweight for the bout, per Radio Rahim of Boxing Scene. He believes his fighter can make the weight if need be, but he wants the fight at 140 pounds if it were to come together.
That could be an issue.
Lomachenko feels that 140 pounds (where Pacquiao would also entertain a bout with Terence Crawford) would be too big for him. He walks around at 138 pounds and would be more comfortable with the bout in the lightweight rather than the junior welterweight division.
Money has a funny way of talking in these situations, and this seems to be a fight that would scream out for a catchweight. That's become a dirty word in the sport these days with fighters abusing it, but it would make sense here.
It's what catchweights are intended to do: bridge the gap between one fighter coming up and one coming down, not give competitive advantages and carve out new weight classes.
It makes all the sense in the world here.
Should Lomachenko beat Walters, of course.
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