By Ryan Burton
WBA lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1) returns to the ring on December 8th against IBF champion Jose Pedraza (25-1) in an ESPN televised unification bout. The action takes place at the Hula Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lomachenko captured his title in May when he got off the canvas and stopped Jorge Linares in the 10th round of a very exciting fight.
Linares has an interesting opinion on the fight. He believes that Pedraza's ability to from southpaw to orthodox makes him an uncomfortable opponent but doesn't believe he will be able to survive until the final bell.
"Honestly I don't think it is an easy fight or a hard fight for Lomachenko because the only thing I see with Pedraza is that he is an awkward fighter, fighting from a left handed stance and also as a righty. He is awkward but I don't think it will go all 12 rounds either," Linares recently told BoxingScene.com.
Linares bounced back from the loss to Lomachenko with a knockout win over Abner Cotto in September. He moved up to 140 pounds for the fight and said that he plans on staying in the super lightweight division. There is however one fight that intrigues him enough to go back to 135 pounds.
"I am still waiting for the rematch with Lomachenko next year. I can still come back to 135 but I will only go back to 135 for the rematch. Besides that I will stay at 140," Linares revealed.
"There are a lot of great fighters at 140. There is Jose Ramirez and Mikey Garcia and a lot of other great rivals at 140 pounds. There are a lot of potential opponents."
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