On Saturday, August 5th, Ukrainian boxing powerhouse Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) will defend his WBO junior lightweight belt against Colombia’s Miguel Marriaga (25-2, 21 KOs), who is moving up in weight and is probably going to get steamrolled. Marriaga has the magical “puncher’s chance” but really the interest is seeing one of the best pound-for-pound pugilists fight live on ESPN.
Before Lomachenko takes on Marriaga, here’s a look back at how Lomachenko won the WBO title in the first place. On June 11th, 2016, Lomachenko headlined an HBO card against Puerto Rico’s Roman “Rocky” Martinez, who entered the fight as the reigning champion.