By Steve Kim
This weekend at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, two-time Olympic gold medal winner Vasyl Lomachenko moves up to junior lightweight to face WBO titlist Rocky Martinez.
The upcoming fight comes on the heels of the memorable war that was waged last Saturday night between WBC belt-holder Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido that ended in a draw. Things are heating up at 130 -pounds.
"You've seen that division become exciting, very quickly," said Peter Nelson, the Sr. V.P. of HBO Sports on Wednesday. "Lomachenko has dedicated to move up in weight for this fight to fight Rocky Martinez on Saturday and we'll see how that fight goes and if he comes out of it. Then the fight this past think weekend, I think you have not one winner but two coming out of that fight and in addition you have (Takashi) Miura and some of the other fights."
Also at this division is IBF champion Jose Pedraza, former world champion Nicholas Walters and Olympic gold medal winner Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Pedraza plans to sit ringside this Saturday to support close friend and Puerto Rican countryman Martinez. If Lomachenko wins, Pedraza will attempt to get a unification fight with him. On the other hand, Lomachenko - should he win - wants to avenge the only loss of his career by securing a rematch with Salido in the near future.
"It's a compelling division right now with a lot of fights,"said Nelson, who's network is in a position to make a lot of these match-ups.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
