Nicholas Walters Gets Revenge Over Miguel Marriaga: Bring On Vasyl Lomachenko!
By Travis “Novel” Fleming
Saturday night, at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York, Nicholas Walters, 26-0, 21 KO’s, gained revenge, and put on a master class, in winning a dominant twelve round decision over power punching Colombian Miguel Marriaga, 20-1, 18KO’s, who beat Walters as an amateur.
Walters failed to make weight, coming in one pound over the featherweight limit, which meant he was stripped of his WBA world title, so the title was only on the line for Marriaga. Marriaga showed he is a legitimate contender, but Walters proved that since their days as an amateur he has vastly improved.
It seems everytime we see Walters, he has learned from his last fight and training camp, and has added new wrinkles to his game. We already knew he was a devastating power puncher, as seen in his previous two bouts where he knocked out highly regarded former champions Nonito Donaire, 34-3, 22 KO’s, and Vic Darchinyan, 40-8, 29 KO’s, last night we saw the complete package. Walters showed excellent defense, counter punching, and hand speed, he also displayed a solid chin, a wide variety of punches in his repertoire, and most importantly, he showed he is a smart fighter with the ability to adapt mid round. Walters’ performance last night was about as impressive as it gets, against an undefeated contender that would be a problem for any of the other champions in the division.
With the recent string of impressive displays over top tier opposition, you would have to think that Walters will be finding his way on to some pound for pound lists. Along with Terrence Crawford, 26-0, 18 KO’s, he is the most impressive young champion in the sport, and has a great future ahead of him. He is must watch TV, and will be recognized as one of the top pound for pound fighters of the post Mayweather vs Pacquiao era. Along with Crawford and Walters, is fellow featherweight, and perhaps the greatest amateur of all time, Vasyl Lomachenko, 4-1, 2 KO’s.
Prior to the Walter vs Marriaga bout, it was no secrete that if Walters got revenge over his amateur foe, a super fight between he and Lomachenko would be negotiated for this fall. When Walters failed to make weight yesterday, it seemed as if he had outgrown the featherweight division, thus killing the chances of the super fight with Lomachenko, who is in no rush to move north in weight, and feels totally comfortable at 126 lbs. Luckily for fans, in a pre-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, Walters attributed his weighing in a pound over the featherweight limit to weight gain in the eight month layoff between the Donaire and Marriaga fights. Walters would prefer to remain active, and despite looking like a junior welterweight, and entering the ring as a welterweight, Walters said he has been a featherweight for a long time, and, without such a long layoff, he can easily make 126 lbs. Walters is one of the biggest featherweights we have seen, but you have to believe him when he says next time making 126 lbs won’t be issue without the long layoff, after all he did only come in a pound over. This is great news because now the likelihood of a Walters vs Lomachenko battle greatly increases. Lomachenko’s an excellent fighter but I don’t like his chances against the much bigger Walters, who hits harder and has shown to be just as capable technically. I feel Lomachenko can beat everyone else in the talent stacked featherweight division, but at five professional bouts, he needs more experience to deal with the complete package presented by Walters.
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