At Madison Square Garden in New York, Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (10-1, 8KO’s) weighed in at 134.6lbs and Jorge “El Nino de Oro” Linares (44-3, 27KO’s) weighed in at 134.6lbs, both making weight for their matchup that was approved for Super Champion status by the World Boxing Association (WBA) for the Lightweight World Title.
The fight will be broadcast live on the ESPN sports network from Madison Square Garden in New York Saturday at 8pm eastern standard time.
Lomachenko, who turned 30 this year, went 3-0 last year while making Jason Sosa, Miguel Marriaga, and Guillermo Rigondeaux all quit on their stools – earning him the nickname “No Mas Chenko”.
Linares, who is 32 years old, will be entering the fight on a 13-fight winning streak dating all the way back to 2012. During that 13-fight winning streak he had seven knockouts and fought in five different countries.
“The last two opponents I faced were southpaws and I have had Vasyl Lomachenko on my radar – I have been preparing for him,” said Linares, who firmly believes that he is going to upset the odds at The Garden.
Linares is also expecting a longer fight to play out and perhaps his game plan is to ramp up as the rounds go by, “The fight is going to get more intense as the rounds go by. He is an elite fighter and an elite amateur fighter but he is still learning as a professional.”
Both fighters look to be at their physical peaks and that is exactly why this is such an intriguing matchup. Despite some of the bookies heavily favoring Lomachenko, most boxing pundits see it as a much closer fight considering the fact that Lomachenko will be fighting in an entirely new weight class – one at which Linares is very comfortable and appears to be peaking at.
A lot is on the line for this fight, with many boxing pundits and fans having Lomachenko as the best pound for pound fighter in the world. Either he can reinforce that claim with a victory over Linares for a new title in a new weight class or Linares can make a claim as the top pound for pound fighter if he can upset the apple cart and live up to what many thought not too long ago was the best potential in boxing.
