The Ukrainian boxing elites put the world on notice with three excellent fan pleasing performances in the USA.
If we had to put last night’s fights in one word, the word ‘hungry’ would be it, because people will have a healthy appetite to see more of these three fighters.
First, we had a cruiserweight title defense with Usyk vs Hunter and what a fight it was.
SEE ALSO: Lomachenko proves why he’s one of the best
From the opening bell Oleksandr Usyk was a man on a mission. He wanted to prove that he deserves to be mentioned among the top pound for pound fighters in boxing.
It was a hard fight with a game Michael Hunter who was coming off a long layoff. Usyk got hit a lot more than usual but was determined in a way we haven’t seen up to now, in an all out action fight.
His motor was on full display and almost got the 12th round stoppage in the end. The crowd was on their feet and rightfully so.
Next up was Gvozdyk vs Gonzalez in a fight that was classic boxer vs slugger in the light-heavyweight division.
Oleksandr Gvozdyk showed patience, poise and focus. He was able to use his superior boxing skills to expose the weaknesses of the more experienced Gonzalez to force a TKO stoppage.
Highlights via HBO YouTube:
Gvozdyk showed why he belonged on the card and may have positioned himself as a player in the 175lbs weight category with the win.
The main event was Lomachenko vs Sosa and it started out much like most of WBO super-featherweight champion’s fights start.
He found his range and gauged his opponent early on.
To the credit of Sosa, he was having some early success but once ‘Hi-Tech’ Lomachenko shifted gears and turned it up a notch he showed us just why so many are raving about those boxing skills at the moment.
The crowd at one point was even shouting:
“Loma! Loma!”
Ultimately I applaud the decision of Sosa’s corner to stop the fight. It was the right thing to do.
There was no disappointment at all in the entire broadcast in my opinion. It left people wanting more of these three Ukrainian boxing stars, and then some.
