HBO Preview: Ukranian invasion, Vasyl Lomachenko v Jason Sosa

HBO features a triple header this Saturday night set to showcase three of the best Ukrainian fighters in the world: featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) against Jason Sosa (20-1-4, 15 KOs), cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk (11-0, 10 KOs) versus Michael Hunter (12-0, 8 KOs), and light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk (12-0, 10 KOs) in with Yunieski Gonzalez (18-2, 14 KOs).

 

I am just going to say it. Vasyl Lomachenko is the best fighter in the world. Is he pound for pound the best fighter in the world? Yes? No? Maybe? I don’t care. That is not a real thing. He is the most talented, I will say, and I would expect him to beat anyone in the sport if they were the same size. Jason Sosa is no exception and the expectations of the fight speak volumes to just how great the two-time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko really is.

Sosa is a pretty good fighter. Yes, he was gifted a late 2015 draw against then top junior lightweight Nicholas Walters, but he has had two consecutive quality performances since. First in June Sosa stopped then unbeaten Javier Fortuna in the 11th and then he outpointed Stephen Smith somewhat comfortably in November. The fight with Walters was actually only Sosa’s second scheduled ten round fight. Clearly he wasn’t ready and he would probably do better now.

It doesn’t matter though. Lomachenko embarrassed Walters into quitting. He put Roman Martinez out cold. His footwork is otherworldly and his power has certainly come along. Sosa won’t be able to hit him with any consistency and the Ukrainian will be able to do whatever he wants. Lomachenko is an all time great talent versus a perfectly good 2017 junior lightweight. It will show. The only real question left is whether or not Lomachenko will be able to stop Sosa who has not been stopped since 2010 in his fifth pro bout.

Almost as good as Lomachenko is Ukrainian cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk. He is not quite as decorated winning only one gold medal versus two and taking ten pro fights to win a world title instead of three, but that combination is still absurd. Usyk won his belt in 2016 with a clear decision win over Polish champion Krzysztof Glowacki in Poland. Glowacki has just defeated long time division kings Marco Huck and Steve Cunningham in consecutive fights, but he wasn’t really much of a problem for Usyk.

Michael Hunter shouldn’t be either. I believe it speaks volumes about what Hunter’s team thinks about his future that this fight is happening now at all. Hunter, a 2012 Olympian in his own right, is coming off an absolutely dreadful May Shobox fight with Isiah Thomas. He won on wide cards, but he showed very little ability to get anything going in that fight. Now he is in with Usyk for the WBO belt. Hunter’s team may believe he doesn’t have a particularly high ceiling here given how they are throwing him right to Usyk this early. This could be a cashing out, so to speak, before a lower level fighter than Usyk beats Hunter and diminishes his value.

Opening the show will be light heavyweight prospect Oleksandr Gvozdyk against Cuban Yunieski Gonzales. This should be the most competitive fight on the card, but the Ukrainian is still heavily favored. Gvozdyk is definitely way ahead of the curve for a normal 12-0 prospect, but that gets lost a bit when comparing him to how far ahead Lomachenko and Usyk are. He has three straight true quality wins beginning with a second round obliteration of Nadjib Mohammedi, getting rid of him a round faster than Kovalev did. He then struggled a little bit by getting dropped hard in the first against veteran Tommy Karpency, but Gvozdyk rallied to batter Karpency the rest of the way, stopping him in six. Most impressively in November Gvozdyk did not struggle too badly with Isaac Chilemba, a guy absolutely everyone struggles with, including Sergei Kovalev, before Chilemba retired in his corner after eight due to a hand injury. This is again a case of him out performing Kovalev against a same opponent.

Gonzales should have a bigger win than Gvozdyk has, however, as most thought he beat Jean Pascal in 2015. The judges didn’t. All the momentum he gained from that performance was immediately lost in his next fight though when he dropped a decision against another Ukrainian born light heavyweight in Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. Since then he has registered two lower level first round KOs and comes in definitely as Gvozdyk’s biggest test to date.

All in all this should be a very entertaining, if not particularly competitive card. Assuming they have good performances here, I really hope Gvozdyk and especially Usyk become staples of the channel. They are both fan friendly, exciting talents and Usyk is in a really strong, really deep cruiserweight division that definitely deserves to have HBO exposure right now as there are so many good fights to make within it. Don’t miss this card.

Predictions:

Lomachenko TKO 10, Usyk TKO 6, Gvozdyk by narrow decision