By Keith Idec

Jason Sosa and his handlers couldn’t care less about his perceived role in his fight Saturday night against Vasyl Lomachenko.

The prevalent public opinion is that Sosa has very little chance of upsetting Vasyl Lomachenko in their HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Most Internet sports books list Lomachenko as a 25-1 favorite over Sosa, but Sosa didn’t hesitate to accept a 130-pound title fight that Orlando Salido and Jezreel Corrales turned down.

Sosa (20-1-4, 15 KOs) was supposed to lose to Nicholas Walters (26-1-1, 21 KOs), but battled the hard-hitting former featherweight champion to a 10-round draw in December 2015 in Verona, New York. The Camden, New Jersey, native was losing to another big puncher, Javier Fortuna, in his next fight, yet came back to stop Fortuna (31-1-1, 22 KOs) in the 11th round and won the WBA world super featherweight championship June 24 in Beijing.

Thus Sosa, his trainer, Raul “Chino” Rivas, and his promoter, Russell Peltz, view this fight against Ukraine’s Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) as just another chance to do something most suspect Sosa can’t accomplish. 

“Top Rank called us, offered us the fight and we said yes, because that’s what fighters do – they fight,” Peltz said during a conference call. “I talked it over with Chino. Chino talked it over with Jason. And listen, we understand we’re not the first choice. We get that.

“We understand what the business is like. We know Salido turned it down for more money. We know Corrales turned it down for more money. That’s because, as everybody said, boxing is more of a business than a sport. So we understand we’re here because nobody else wanted the challenge. But the point is, we’re gonna take advantage of that.”

Peltz compared the Lomachenko-Sosa situation to a scenario he watched unfold as a young boxing fan in 1963.

“When I was a kid, some boxing history, I loved a fighter named Harold Johnson, who was the light heavyweight champion of the world,” Peltz said. “He was scheduled in [June] 1963 to defend his title against a kid from Peru named Mauro Mina. And about six weeks before the fight, Mauro Mina failed the eye test.

“So they brought in Henry Hank. Then, two weeks before the fight, Henry Hank got injured. So they brought in Willie Pastrano on like 10 days’ notice. And Pastrano knew he wasn’t the first choice, but he took advantage of it and he won the title [by split decision in Las Vegas]. And that’s what it’s all about. Fighters fight.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.