At the Bubble, MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV, Saturday over ESPN Top Rank – Bob Arum feature a unification match for the Lightweight WBA, WBO and IBF world titles. Representing the WBA and WBO is Vasyl “Hi Tech” Lomachenko against IBF World champion Teofimo “El Brooklyn” Lopez.

This match-up has “bad blood” written all over it. First we have a cocky Lopez, 15-0 (12), out of Brooklyn, NY, managed by David McWater. “Hard work pays off. Eighteen years in and it’s just the beginning. You haven’t seen anything yet,” said Lopez!

The fighter who this writer considers the best P4P fighter in the world, Lomachenko, 14-1 (10), of the UKR, managed by Egis Klimas, and 14-1 (10), of Oxnard, CA, brings to the table the hunger of a European fighter from a poor country like Ukraine with 2 Olympic Gold Medals and an amateur background of 396-1 compared to Lopez’s 150-20 who in 2016 represented Honduras at the Olympics. The only thing similar to the two fighters is their fathers are their trainers, Anatoly Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez, Sr.

“I won’t know (how the layoff will impact me 14 months compared to 12 months for Lopez) until Saturday night. I’m thinking of my future and that’s it. For me I think it will be a chess match,” said Lomachenko.

This writer knows Lomachenko has more to lose bringing in two of his three belts to Lopez bringing in one belt. I believe that Lomachenko wants to humiliate Lopez while Lopez wants to punish Lomachenko. Lomachenko is a 4-1 favorite in this fight and I believe it will go into the later rounds when the 32 year-old Lomachenko stops the 23 year-old Lopez!