Fight time is upon us again. This Saturday night/Sunday morning depending on where you live, Vasiliy Lomachenko, will square off against none other than Jorge Linares at Madison Square Garden, New york.
Red corner/Blue corner
... Introducing first, Fighting out of the red corner. In 47 professional fights, he has 44 victories with 27 wins by knockout, and only 3 defeats. He is a three time, three weight world champion. The reigning, defending WBC lightweight champion of the world ...from Venezuela ....
Golden-n-n boy-y-y Jorge Linares-s-s...
...And across the ring fighting out of the blue corner. In 11 professional fights, he has amassed 10 victories including 8 wins by knockout, with only 1 defeat. He is a two time Olympic gold medal champion and a two weight professional boxing champion of the world... from Akkerman, Ukraine...
Vasiliy-y-y Hi-tech Lomachenko-o-o
The Records
Comparing both fighters professional records on paper, this one almost seems to read like a mismatch. Linares a 47 fight pro VS Lomachenko an 11 fight pro, (and crazily enough the 11 fight pro is the favourite), but then take into consideration that Lomachenko has a 396-1 amateur record, including two Olympic gold medals, and it begins to make sense, watch a Lomachenko fight, witness his skills first hand and it will make all the sense in the world.
It was about 10 years ago when I first heard the name Vasiliy Lomachecko. My nephew, a then budding amateur boxer himself, began to rant a rave about some guy that just had to be seen to be believed. I was a little skeptical, after all he was only 10, my nephew, not Lomachenko. So I did my due diligence and decided to look up a few clips on youtube, and the rest as they say, is history, I've been a fan ever since.
The first time I watched Linares was about 11 or 12 years ago, I've been a fan ever since. He was fighting a really tough, durable world champion in Oscar Larios, and made easy work of him. It was that same immediate reaction, one look at the guy and you just knew he was going to win multiple world titles, at multiple weights. For some strange reason through no fault of his own, it has taken almost 10 years for Linares to become a world wide star, but he has finally made it to the biggest stage against arguably the biggest name in the sport at the moment.
This is a tough fight between two highly skilled operators who come to fight and put on a show, but because of the style mash this could go either way, it might turn into an all out brawl or it might turn into a chess match. I'm leaning towards the chess match, one for the purist and not for the causal fan.
The referee is ready, the judges are ready,and the fighters are in the ring... and now fight fans....