By Ian S Palmer
Former WBA Super World, and WBO Lightweight Champ Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine will be taking on Masayoshi Nakatani in a 12-round lightweight bout this Saturday, June 26 at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas. The fight can be seen live on ESPN+ in America while fans in the UK can catch it on Sky Sports Action and those in Canada can see it on TSN 2. Lomachenko lost his titles the last time out via a controversial unanimous decision to unbeaten IBF boss Teofimo Lopez in October while Nakatani stopped Felix Verdejo in the ninth round for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight Title in December.
The 33-year-old Lomachenko, known as ‘Hi Tech, also held the WBO Super Featherweight and Featherweight titles earlier in his career and now fights out of Oxnard, California. He owns a a pro record of 14-2 with 10 Kos and before losing to Lopez was generally considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. Lomachenko’s first loss came at the hands of Orlando Salido by controversial split decision in March, 2014 in his second pro fight.
He turned pro in 2013 after winning two Olympic gold medals for his homeland in 2008 and 2012. Lomachenko obviously enjoyed an excellent and extensive amateur career and then won the WBO Featherweight crown against Gary Russell Jr. via majority decision in June, 2014. He defended it against Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, Gamalier Rodriguez, and Romulo Koasicha before moving up in weight.
He beat Roman Martinez by fifth-round KO in June, 2016 for the Super Featherweight Title and defended it against Nicholas Walters, Jason Sosa, Miguel Marriaga and Guillermo Rigondeaux. He beat Jorge Linares for the WBA Super World Lightweight Crown by 10th-round stoppage in May, 2018 and defended it while adding the WBO Lightweight Title by unanimous decision over Jose Pedraza in December, 2018. The vacant WBC Lightweight Title was added in 2019 with a unanimous decision over a game Luke Campbell. Lomachenko possesses fantastic footwork, speed, and accuracy with good power and overall ring generalship, which often leaves his opponents totally frustrated.
The former champ has a good chin, but Linares did drop him in the sixth round. In general, Lomachenko tends to break his opponents down with solid combinations and body and head shots. He stands 5-feet-7-inches tall and has a wingspan of 65.5 inches. He’s fought 143 rounds since turning pro with a current knockout ratio of 62.5 per cent. Lomachenko was becoming a more aggressive boxer with each passing fight but threw far too few punches against Lopez in the first half of their fight.
Most boxing fans had never heard of the 32-year-old Nakatani until he gave Teofimo Lopez all he could handle in 2019 when he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to him. He then surprised fans again by stopping Verdejo the last time out in December. The native of Osaka is the reigning Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation Lightweight Champion who won the belt in January, 2014 with a majority decision over Yoshitaka Kato and has successfully defended it 11 times.
Nakatani steps into the squared circle with a fine mark of 19-1 with 13 Ko’s. However, unless you hail from his part of the world you won’t recognize any of his opponents other than Lopez and Verdejo and this will be just his third fight outside of Japan. Nakatani is a tough boxer with a solid chin and better-than-average power with a current knockout ratio of 65.2 per cent and had stopped four straight opponents and seven of the last eight before running into Lopez.
Nakatani stands close to six-feet tall with a reach of 71 inches which gives him a big five-inch height edge over Lomachenko as well as a 5.5-inch edge in reach. Nakatani made his pro debut back in 2011 and has boxed a total of 140 rounds since. Like most Japanese boxers, he’s as tough as nails and has enough power in his fists to be a handful for anybody.
Prediction…
Lomachenko still possesses an excellent pedigree as an amateur and pro boxer and can only blame himself for the loss to Lopez. He simply didn’t throw any punches for the first half of that contest and gave away too many rounds. When he did begin to fight back, he had Lopez confused for much of the remainder of the fight. He’s obviously on a mission here to prove he still has what it takes to be a world champion but will have his hands full. Nakatani is physically much bigger and has power but isn’t the most fluid boxer and also gets hit too much. Lomachenko should be able to utilize his boxing skills and foot movement to get in and out against Nakatani and box his way to victory.
