Photos by Mary Ann Owen - Two-division world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist VASYL LOMACHENKO will defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior lightweight title against undefeated former world featherweight champion NICHOLAS "Axe Man" WALTERS. Lomachenko vs. Walters will take place Saturday, Nov. 26, at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. It will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 10:35 p.m. ET/PT.
"Boxing fans will be able to spend their Thanksgiving holiday weekend feasting on the year's most anticipated showdown," said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum.
"Forget their weight class. With more than 3/4 of their victories coming by way of knockout, they punch and win like heavyweights! We know how the fight is going to end. The question is, which fighter will end it."
The greatest amateur boxer of his era and arguably of all time, two-time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs), of Odessa, became a two-division world champion just as he did with his first professional world title, he won world title No. 2 in a record least amount of fights -- SEVEN!
In his last fight, on June 11, he annihilated defending three-time WBO junior lightweight champion Roman "Rocky" Martinez via a cringe-worthy knockout punch in the fifth round. Lomachenko first gained international renown by winning gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Games as a featherweight and a lightweight, respectively.
Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs), from Montego Bay, Jamaica, has won 11 of his last 14 fights by stoppage. In his last fight, on December 19, 2015, Walters moved up to the junior lightweight division and took on once-defeated Top-10 contender Jason Sosa, who entered the fight riding a four-year, 17-bout unbeaten streak, which included 13 consecutive knockout victories. Walters and Sosa fought to a controversial majority draw in a bout where media and fans alike had Walters winning by a wide margin.
