LOMACHENKO LIKELY TO FACE SOSA ON APRIL 8TH

Junior Lightweight World Champion Vasyl Lomachenko will likely face Jason Sosa on April 8th Bob Arum told ESPN on Wednesday.

The fight will be contested at the new MGM National Harbor in Oxen Hill, Maryland, Washington with Lomachenko starting as the obvious favourite.

Lomachenko has moved quickly to secure titles in two weight classes, doing so in just 8 professional contests, showing the skills which merited being named one of the most technically gifted fighters of all time, “Lomachenko is technically the best fighter that I have seen since the early Muhammad Ali.” Bob Arum said recently.

“I don’t think anybody beats Lomachenko, but Sosa has a puncher’s chance,” Arum said. “He’s certainly a respectable opponent.”

WBA titleholder Jason Sosa took his chance against Javier Fortuna to peak interest amongst the boxing community with an 11th round stoppage before making a successful defence of his title against the Uk’s Stephen Smith in Monte Carlo.

“Sosa beat two good fighters in Fortuna and Smith, and he wants to find out how good he is,” said Russell Peltz, who co-promotes Sosa with Top Rank. “He wants to test himself against the best and Lomachenko is one of the best. If there were more fighters with Sosa’s attitude, boxing would be in better shape.”

Peltz said he and Arum are still haggling over some of the details and the money, but he is confident it will be finalized.

“Sosa wants the fight and his trainer [Raul ‘Chino’ Rivas] likes the fight,” Peltz said. “I don’t think Jason will get discouraged if he falls behind early. He didn’t lose focus in China against Fortuna, and he came from behind and won the fight. I think he’ll keep trying for every minute of every round against Lomachenko.

“I know Lomachenko was this great amateur with [close to] 400 fights, but that takes a toll on your body. There’s a point where it adds up and it takes its toll on the body. I’ve seen Lomachenko fight, and everybody is beatable. I saw Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston. On April 8, we are going to have the best chance of everybody to beat Lomachenko because we’re gonna be the one in the ring with him. Sosa is a world-class puncher and still learning to fight. He only had three amateur fights, but he’ll give it everything he has like he always does.”

Arum initially tried to make a unification fight for Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) against Panama’s Jezreel Corrales (21-1, 8 KOs) but said the Corrales camp ultimately rejected the fight.

“He didn’t want the fight,” Arum said. “That’s one of the problems with Lomachenko — nobody’s got the balls to fight him except Sosa.”