Review: 2014-06-21, very high level of boxing between Vasyl Lomachenko and Gary Russell Jr: it gets three stars. The 2012 and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko entered this fight with a professional boxing record of 1-1-0 (1 knockout – but he has an amateur record of 396-1) and he is ranked as the No.19 featherweight in the world, in his last bout he he lost to Orlando Salido via split decision in a fight valid for the vacant WBO Fw title (=Salido vs Lomachenko).
His opponent, the undefeated Gary Russell Jr, has a perfect record of 24-0-0 (14 knockouts) and he entered as the No.29 in the same weight class, he has already fought in 2014 beating Miguel Tamayo. Lomachenko vs Russell Jr is valid for the vacant WBO featherweight title, first world title shot for Russel Jr; undercard of Robert Guerrero vs Yoshihiro Kamegai. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2014-06-21
Where: StubHub Center, Carson, California, USA
Division: featherweight (126 lbs, 57.2 kg)
Title: vacant WBO featherweight title
Lomachenko’s previous fight: Orlando Salido vs Vasyl Lomachenko
Lomachenko’s next fight: Vasyl Lomachenko vs Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo
Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Official video
We got exactly what I expected.
A great high level match.
Russel Jr is one of my favorite United States boxer’s. Both for his abilities and his sincerity. Like everyone else, I had wished he would step up his competition. Unfortunately Lomachenko was way above his level and his inexperience came out. Russel was a 1 dimensional fighter for all but 2 rounds. Repeatedly throwing flurries of show shine punch’s rather than actual combinations. Those never hit Lomachenko. The 6th and 10th rounds are good example of that. Russel Jr was very aggressive but wasn’t connecting.
Again I want to bitch about favored fighters and
networks. The official score was 114/114 with the other 2 judges having it 116/112. My score card was 10-2 for Lomachenko. That would be 118/110. The 8th could be swing round. The other 2 rounds I gave Russel were the 4th and 9th. But even the commentators kept acting like Russel was doing things right.
Compare that to the main fight of that evening – Guerrero vs Kamegai. Those 116/112 ,117-111,117-111. This fight was way closer than those scores but Guerrero is the favored in that match up.
I’m curious if any of the top 5 guys at 126 will step up
against Lomachenko. Gradovich, Donaire, Mares, Gonzales or Walters. 126 division is looking good.
amazing footwork by Lomachenko, very nice to watch him dancing! I really like him but he has to improve his power or strategy against warriors like salido or other latino boxers if not he will lose again
A really interesting fight that showed Lomanchenko’s skill against another skilled, if somewhat one dimensional fighter. Gary has amazing hand speed, but if he is to become a well rounded and complete fighter he needs to develop other aspects of his boxing style. His arsenal just needs more weapons. Fast hands can only get you so far. Lomanchenko looked great. I don’t think he should be judged too harshly for losing his first bout. He got gamed by Salido, but I think he will know better now (to negociatiate the terms of the fight before it happens).