Walters is finally moving up in weight. Hopefully day before weigh-ins, an experiment that has failed, won?t interfere with his career any time soon?
On Saturday, December 19, at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, in a fight televised live on HBO After Dark, former WBA featherweight world champion Nicholas ?Axe Man? Walters (26-0, 21 KOs), the knockout artist from Montego Bay, Jamaica, returns to action against hard-hitting Jason ?El Canito? Sosa (18-1-3, 14 KOs), from Camden, New Jersey, in a 10-round junior lightweight special attraction.
An amateur standout that turned pro in 2008, 29-year-old Walters can do it all. He can box as well as punch and has a KO percentage of 81%.
The Axe Man captured the vacant WBA World featherweight title on December 12, 2012, by icing Daulis Prescott (26-1 coming in) in the seventh round. He successfully defended the title two times. He TKO?d Alberto Garza in 2013. Then he KO?d former two-division champion Vic Darchinyan the following year.
On October 18, 2014, Walters blasted out former four-division champion Nonito Donaire, after dropping him twice, to win the WBA Super World featherweight title and catapult himself into the stratosphere.
After the defeat, Donaire complained that Walters was no featherweight, an observation confirmed when he lost his next fight on the scale to Michael Marriaga. The Axe Man was only a pound overweight. No matter. Overweight is overweight. It was an embarrassing way to lose a crown.
Walters is finally moving up in weight and hopefully day before weigh-ins, an experiment that has failed, won?t interfere with his career any time soon.
?I am training hard in Panama,? Walters said. ?I know how important this fight is and I will be in optimum physical condition. My team has been studying video of my opponent Sosa. I cannot wait to leave Panama, get into Verona, New York, and get inside the ring. Boxing is my passion.?
Twenty-seven-year-old Sosa is no pushover. He has not lost a fight in four years and has stopped his last 13 opponents. Currently ranked #8 by the IBF and #13 by the WBO, he is the Pride of Camden, a city for which pride has been in short supply.
?First, I would like to thank God for all that he has done for me in my life,? he said. ?I would also like to thank Nicholas Walters for giving me the opportunity to fight on December 19th. He is a very strong fighter and the toughest opponent that I have faced. But I am up for the challenge. I have a great team and they are getting me in the best shape of my life and making sure that I am mentally and physically ready to come away with the win. I am sure we are both ready for war and fans are not going to want to miss this.?
Another thing the fans won?t want to miss is the co-main event between Luis ?The Real King Kong? Ortiz (23-0, 20 KOs), the undefeated slugger from Miami, Florida, and Philadelphia?s own Bryant ?By-By? Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs).
Ortiz won the interim WBA World heavyweight title when he starched Matias Ariel Vidondo in his last fight. The fight with Jennings, which has not yet been sanctioned as a WBA title defense, will nevertheless be a barnburner.
Jennings, the ultimate diamond in the rough, ably acquitted himself last April in a losing effort against the Wladimir Klitschko. The Big Kahuna told HBO?s Max Kellerman after the fight with Jennings, ?He had a great desire to win and be the champion. He was even talking in the rounds and trying to make it like Ali-Frazier. He gave me a great challenge.?
If Jennings can give Klitschko a great challenge, you can bet your bottom dollar he?ll do the same for ?The Real King Kong.?
