This weekend’s fight between pound for pound elite Vasyl Lomachenko and Miguel Marriaga is not expected to be particularly competitive. No one asked for it and no one is particularly excited to watch. Yet, WBO titleholder Vasyl Lomachenko is excitement all by himself. He is a master technician on the highest level of the sport. If nothing else, at least now he comes with your cable package on Saturday night.
Two Top Rank on ESPN shows, two fights we considered big mismatches going in. Though Manny Pacquiao versus Jeff Horn turned out to be a bit more competitive than was anticipated, I don’t think that kind of fight is likely here. Colombia’s Miguel Marriaga (25-2, 21 KOs) isn’t in with a fading version of a former great like Horn was, but Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) in his prime.
Marriaga isn’t a bad fighter, but he is almost entirely lacking in quality wins. If I had to pick one, his 2014 stoppage of then fringe contender Christopher Martin was probably his best win, but that isn’t saying a ton. His only two losses were to Nicholas Walters when Walters was still a very hot commodity and last time out against Oscar Valdez. He was very competitive with Valdez too, a world titleholder, though the Colombian contender didn’t see his quality effort reflected on the scorecards. To qualify that a bit, despite Valdez’s obvious talent and world title belt, he is still very much an in progress prospect.
Vasyl Lomachenko, on the other hand, is very much the real deal. One of the greatest amateurs of all time with two Olympic gold medals to show for it, Lomachenko was considerably more developed as a fighter before he turned professional than Oscar Valdez is right now. He features the best footwork I have ever seen, hands down, and great athleticism to boot. His ability to dart in and out, or to spin his opponent, can just be mesmerizing to watch. It feels unlikely that anyone at the weight could threaten him or his WBO belt, but there are still better options than Marriaga.
Originally here the idea was for Vasyl to look to avenge his one defeat, a decision loss to Orlando Salido in Loma’s second pro fight. Salido used every veteran’s trick and advantage from coming in overweight to landing a million low blows, but he still only narrowly escaped with the win following a near final round stoppage loss. According to Arum and company, however, Salido dropped out relatively late in negotiations and they were forced to scramble for a replacement.
This is what we have. To be completely honest, I will still be happy to tune in because, for me, Vasyl Lomachenko is an absolute joy to watch work his craft. Next time out, however, Top Rank has to deliver something better.
In the co-main event, expect a lot of green card talk. For whatever reason, the narrative surrounding Ray Beltran (33-7-1, 21 KOs) has largely been focused on his attempt to obtain US citizenship. His opponent will be Costa Rican Bryan Vasquez (35-2, 19 KOs. Like Marriaga in the main event, Vasquez has stepped up twice before and lost. In 2012, he challenged long time divisional kingpin Takashi Uchiyama and in 2014 to Javier Fortuna. He isn’t here to win. It appears that Ray Beltran is being positioned as an option for Lomachenko should he decide to move up again to full lightweight.
The show begins at 10 PM Eastern on ESPN. Only a cable subscription is required.
