Is Lomachenko-Nakatani Grand Prize Teofimo Lopez?
The undisputed title currently belongs in the hands of Teofimo Lopez but Saturday night, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Masayoshi Nakatani look to get one step closer with both facing him again when they face off on ESPN+ from the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Check out our latest Big Fight Weekend Podcast where we speak with Ryan O’Hara of Ringtv.com as we discuss this bout as well as all the boxing action going on this weekend.
The story for Lomachenko is simple. Last night he lost to Lopez in what Adam Abramowitz of Saturday Night Boxing referred to as “interpretative dance” and you’d be hard-pressed to think otherwise. At first, he blamed everything about the loss on anything he could grasp straws at. I mean, how funny was it that he blamed Compubox out of all things?
But let’s fast forward to Saturday as Lomachenko looks to focus on Nakatani as he looked to get back into the ring since the loss last October.
“I have a fight this Saturday, and after that, we can talk about a rematch. I want it!” Lomachenko said Thursday at the final press conference Saturday leading into his match with Nakatani.
Motivation and focus will be no issue in this one.#LomaNakatani | SATURDAY | ESPN+ – 10pm ET pic.twitter.com/NzxyUpofTS
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) June 24, 2021
In the other corner facing him is Nakatani, who has been on the same mission. He earned it by rebounding from his loss to Lopez in 2019 by getting up off the deck twice and knocking out now-disgraced fighter Felix Verdejo last December.
“When this fight came up, I felt that it is the biggest fight of my career. But getting the fight doesn’t mean anything. I must win for this fight to mean something. I’m going to win!” Nakatani said.
The winner of this bout could set up the possibility of a rematch with Lopez for both. It’ll be interesting when it happens as Lopez is still waiting on his repeatedly delayed contest against George Kambosos Jr. to take shape. With Lopez planning a future fight with Top Rank down the line, we’ll see if these two get a chance to revenge their losses.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
