The View From V2 Magazine June 2014 | Page 21

early with a nice one-two and stiffening Kamegai's legs twice with crisp shots straight down the pipe, first a left and then a right for good measure.

It ended the way it had to, with both men brutally exchanging vicious blows at a frenetic pace, but the right man - Guerrero - got the nod in one of the finest fights we've seen in 2014 so far, by scores of 116-112 (Max DeLuca) and 117-111 from both Pat Russell and Tony Crebs. My card was a carbon copy of DeLuca's.

Kamegai was low key after his loss, even if it was a brilliant one.

Kamegai was low key after his loss, even if it was a brilliant one. "There's not much I can say right now, because I didn't win," he told the press. However, even in defeat his performance was good enough to suggest that his first headlining slot in the States won't be his last. Guerrero was understandably more brash in the aftermath.

."I like to give the fans what they want, so I

stood there and I banged with him."

(Robert Guerrero)

Guerrero also talked of a possible Mayweather

rematch. That is highly unlikely, but he has shown

that he's still definitely a viable fight for any other

big-name Welter out there, and has also well and

truly put away those rumours that we'd seen the

last of a fully-motivated 'Ghost' as well.

Just as Guerrero had questions to answer going in to his fight, then, so too did both Vasyl Lomachenko and Gary Russell Jr, who squared off for the vacant WBO Featherweight title. Had Lomachenko, the most decorated and greatest amateur boxer of his (and very possibly any) generation, learned the lessons of March's defeat to Orlando Salido, who out-toughed and bullied the gifted Ukrainian to a points loss while at the same time dashing his dreams of becoming a world title holder (the same belt had been on offer for Lomachenko that night) in just his second professional bout, which would have been an all-time record?

As for Russell, was he really ready to jump up to world level having previously never even graduated beyond the ten round class, and was there any substance behind the style or blurring hand speed and flashy combinations, which likewise had made him a stand out amateur before turning professional in 2009.

Running out a majority decision winner (I have no idea what Lisa Giampa, who scored the bout even, was watching), it appears that Lomachenko is top of the class right now, whereas Russell is going to have to re-sit a couple of grades.

Of particular interest to me was how Russell would fare when / if he was forced to box going away on the back foot, seeing as he's seldom had to do it for more than a few seconds at a time up until now in his paid career. Not very well was the answer, unfortunately for him. Right away, Lomachenko took the lead in this all-southpaw battle, probing at Russell's defences and getting on the front foot.

For three rounds, Lomachenko dominated albeit the action was slightly tepid, and followed a monotonous pattern as the former amateur virtuoso, who could still tie Saensak Muangsurin (WBC Light-Welterweight title holder two times over in the mid to late seventies) as the earliest man to a world title in just three fights, kept Russell honest with his jab and made him tentative with his own shots, ensuring that whenever Russell did open up he paid for it by taking a stiff, short hook to the ribs.

Russell finally got on the front foot himself in the fourth, but his shots seemed to carry less