Vasyl Lomachenko Vs Jose Ramirez - Fight Preview

By Adam Canavan @adam_canavan

The world awaits Lomachenko's debut!

This Saturday, on the undercard of the Tim Bradley vs Juan Manuel Marquez, is a fight that could very well become an important moment in boxing history: the long awaited professional debut of 1x European Championships gold medalist, 1x World Championships silver and 2x gold medalist and 2x olympic gold medalist, one of the finest amateur boxers of all time. Vasyl Lomachenko.

Lomachenko (25) makes his professional debut against the world ranked and experienced pro from Mexico, Jose Ramirez (25) in an unprecedented 10 round debut.

Ramirez brings a typical Mexican style, he comes forward and bangs in big shots to the body. He carries decent boxing ability and good power. He has two notable wins on his 25(15)-3 record in Abdiel Ramirez (who was 9-0 at the time and has since improved his record to 20-1) and Rey Bautista (now 34-3).

Lomachenko's reputation as an amateur is well known and his run in the 'pro-style' World Series of Boxing proved that he can deal with the lack of a headguard and vest and also that he can handle the slightly longer distance of 5 rounds. There is very little wrong with Lomachenko in my opinion: he has an exciting style that will be well suited to the pros, his footwork is phenomenal, his speed of foot, hand and mind is incredible and he packs a big punch, although that hasn't been evident due to Vasyl having to fight at lightweight because the featherweight class was removed.

The big question on this fight and probably the only doubt on Lomachenko is how his stamina will hold up over the full 10 rounds and considering Ramirez is a good body puncher and Lomachenko has shown some susceptibility to body shots before, this should be a key part of Ramirez's gameplan if he wants to cause the upset. However, Lomachenko's high fitness levels are well known and I feel Lomachenko will be a class above Ramirez on the night and will pick him apart to get the late stoppage. There is a difference between an elite amateur making a pro debut against someone like Ramirez and one of the All Time Great Amateurs fighting Ramirez on his debut and Lomachenko is definitely one of the latter.

My final prediction: Lomachenko TKO9