Nicholas Walters says he learned a valuable lesson from last Saturday?s epic light heavyweight showdown between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev.
And that makes good sense, since there are some rough parallels that can be drawn between that fight and his Saturday showdown in Las Vegas on HBO against Vasyl Lomachenko for the Ukrainian?s WBO Super Featherweight Championship.
Lomachenko presents significant stylistic challenges for any man who steps in the ring with him. Like Ward, he?s highly skilled in all technical areas and makes a compelling case for inclusion near the top of many pound-for-pound lists.
Unlike Ward, he?s become the newest darling of fight fans and media and sits as a heavy betting favorite, currently -650 per OddsShark at the time of this writing.
But they don?t call Walters the Axe Man because he carries a large novelty axe with him to the ring.
Well, that?s not the only reason, anyway.
They call him that because he possesses game-changing power and hopes to make that the decisive factor to lead him to a significant upset.
He?s looking to put Lomachenko on his back, and, when he does, he doesn?t intend to let him recover like Ward did against Kovalev.
?Hey man, that?s what I?m really planning on doing,? Walters told BoxingScene?s Keith Idec on Tuesday. ?I?m really and truly planning on taking him out.?
Walters believes that when you put a fighter on the mat like that you need to press your advantage and seal the deal. Kovalev?s fundamental error, then, was that he didn?t go for the kill when his man was hurt.
Had he done that then maybe the scorecards?hotly debated since?would?ve gone into the trash bin of history and not mattered at all.
Knockouts eliminate every shred of controversy. They?re decisive.
?What I do say, though, is when you knock a guy down so early in a fight, and you?re fighting an unbeaten fighter, an American champion, also, and you?re fighting in the States, you?ve got to take him out.?
?You can?t just go through the fight thinking, ?You know, we?re just gonna go to the decision.? Don?t leave the fights to a decision. You knock him down, that proved something. Knock him out. Take him out.?
That would seem to be the best-case scenario for Walters in this fight.
Most predictions for this one seem to fit into one category and share one essential truth.
They start with the premise that Lomachenko is the better fighter.
And you?re not going to find a whole lot of traction if you attempt to argue that point.
Lomachenko is a technical marvel who moves around the ring with such fluidity and clobbers his opponents with such precision that you can rightfully wonder if he?s discovered some real-life cheat code.
Or if Bleacher Report?s Jonathan Snowden is correct, the Ukrainian truly might exist inside The Matrix.
You can see his point when you watch Lomachenko fight and he appears to be six or seven steps ahead of his opponent, almost as though he were slowing things down in front of him.
So, Lomachenko is supposed to win?most feel easily?against an opponent who you?d probably never dismiss against any other fighter. That says a lot.
But what if Walters can land something high and hard early in the fight?
It?s the proverbial puncher?s chance, and it only takes one shot to win a fight.
?Any fighter can be knocked out no matter who he is,” Walters said, per a press release from Top Rank. ?I like fighting the best and I like fighting against (a) great technical fighter like Lomachenko.?
?Look at what happened when I fought a great technical fighter like Nonito Donaire.?
Donaire was named the 2012 Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America after a campaign that saw him go 4-0 against top-flight opposition and capture a pair of world championships.
Walters showed against Donaire (who, granted, doesn?t compare in skill or style to Lomachenko) that he can be a patient stalker that sets up his power with solid boxing and doesn?t force things that aren?t there.
The real question here is whether or not those lessons apply.
Walters isn?t going to outbox or outthink Lomachenko.
No, Walters needs to do exactly what he said.
He needs to attack and try to knock his man out.
It?s his best and, perhaps, only chance.
