Jorge Linares vs. Vasyl Lomachenko official for May 12

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams

Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank have finalized the May 12th fight between WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares and 2-time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko. This wasn’t an easy fight to put together due the date of the fight conflicting with the replay of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin 2 fight.

Top Rank found a way around that problem by working with ESPN to have the Linares-Lomachenko fight start earlier so it wouldn’t conflict with the time of the Canelo-GGG broadcast on HBO Boxing on May 12.

If Lomachenko beats Linares, he’ll have won his third division world title. Lomachenko has won world titles at 126 and 130. Winning a world title at 135 would be a nice accomplishment for Lomachenko. The real test is when Lomachenko moves up to 140 and perhaps even 147 to try and win world titles in those weight classes.

It took Lomachenko two years to finally move up to lightweight. He talked about the move a lot, but he wanted to take his time before he moved up in weight. If Lomachenko does the same thing before moving up to 140, he could wind up waiting too long ending up too old to beat the best fighters in that weight class. Moving to 147 would likely be a step too far for Lomachenko. Those guys are just too big and too strong for him.

Linares and Lomachenko will face each other on the 12th of May at Madison Square Garden in New York. It’s a good venue for the 29-year-old Lomachenko having the fight in New York, but not a good one for Linares, who comes from Venezuela and lives in Tokyo, Japan. Linares’s is popular in California and England. He hasn’t fought in New York. Top Rank did a good job of negotiating the fight Linares vs. Lomachenko fight for New York.

ESPN and ESPN Deportes will be televising the Linares-Lomachenko fight. The start time is at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT on May 12. The reason the fight is so early in the evening is because Golden Boy Promotions has the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin 2 replay taking place on the same evening on May 12 on HBO Boxing. Golden Boy didn’t want the Linares-Lomachenko fight to run at the same time as the Canelo-GGG 2 replay, as it would split the audience.

Linares has won his last 13 fights. His last defeat came in March 2012 in losing to Sergio Thompson by a 2ne round knockout. That was a bad period of Linares’ career with him losing back to back fights to Thompson and Antonio DeMarco. Linares suffered bad cuts in both of those fights.

Lomachenko will move up from the super featherweight division to challenge Linares for his WBA lightweight strap. This will be a permanent move up in weight for Lomachenko, who will campaign at 135. It’s possible that Lomachenko will eventually move up to 140, because that’ll enable him to compete in more competitive fights against fighters from the light welterweight and welterweight division. At lightweight, Lomachenko will only have a small handful of well-known fighters for him to fight in that weight class once he’s done with Linares.

“This is the fight that boxing fans wanted. This will be a super fight between two of the best champions,” Linares said. “Not only will I demonstrate why I’m the best lightweight in the world, but also that I’m one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. I have the speed, skill and power to win this battle. This May 12, Vasiliy Lomachenko will bow down to ‘King’ Jorge.”

If Linares beats Lomachenlo, it’ll be a major upset in the boxing world. Lomachenko is a top pound-for-pound fighter, and seen by many boxing fans as the most complete fighter in the sport today. Lomachenko is fighting against one of the best technicians in the sport in 32-year-old Linares, and he’ll be facing a guy that will possess better hand speed and superior size than him. Lomachenko was a lot bigger than his last opponent super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, who moved up two weight classes to fight him last December without the benefit of a catch-weight.

Lomachenko looked great in beating the smaller Rigondeaux. We’ll see if Lomachenko can look just as good against a bigger fighter with more hand speed than him in Linares. What makes Lomachenko so hard to fight is the way he constantly shifts his feet around to get in different positions to throw his light punches. Lomachenko doesn’t focus on loading up on his shots the way normal fighters do.

If Linares can adapt to Loachenkos constantly changing punching angles, he could beat him. It won’t be easy to do, but it possible. Orlando Salido beat Lomachenko four years ago by targeting his body with shots in defeating him by a 12 round split decision in 2014. Linares might want to consider throwing body shots as well to slow Lomachenko down, as he’s not easy to hit with head shots.

It’s surprising to some that the two giant promotional companies were able to work together to put this fight together. It’s easy to understand why Top Rank was so willing to make the Lomachenko-Linares fight. Lomachenko is the favorite to win, and it’s a fight that he needs for him to become a star. It’s questionable whether Top Rank would have made the Lomachenko-Linares fight if Lomachenlo was the underdog. I tend to doubt that Top Rank boss would have let Lomachenko anywhere near Linares if he was a huge underdog in the fight.

“Fans from around the world have been waiting for Jorge and me to fight,” Lomachenko said.

Lomachenko has won nine fights in a row since losing to Orlando Salido by a 12 round decision in March 2014. Since then, Lomachenko has beaten Gary Russell Jr., Roman Martinez, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Jason Sosa, and Miguel Marriaga. The fighter that Lomachenko hasn’t fought is Mikey Garcia, the WBC lightweight champion. That’s the fight that the boxing fans have wanted to see. Lomachenko could have had that fight two years ago if he’d moved up in weight to accept the challenge from Garcia.

If Lomachenko wins this fight, it’ll be interesting to see if Top Rank takes a risk with him by moving him up to 140 and matching him against the likes of Regis Prograis and Mikey Garcia. Those two guys are seen as the best fighters at 140. One of Top Rank’s fighters Jose Ramirez recently won the WBC light welterweight title last Saturday night in beating Amir Imam. Ramirez will likely be facing Progais and there’s a very good chance he loses that fight.

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