Saturday's fight between Vasiliy Lomachenko and Richard Commey (5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+) should be a great fight, for as long as it lasts. Both fighters have a common opponent in Teofimo Lopez, and the results were drastically different. While Lomachenko lost on points in a highly anticipated undisputed lightweight championship fight in October 2020, Commey was brutally knocked out in the second round by Lopez with one of those lightweight titles on the line in December 2019.
This is the second consecutive former Lopez opponent for Lomachenko. Masayoshi Nakatani, the hard-hitting Japanese fighter who gave Lopez his first real test of his pro career by going the distance, was knocked out by Lomachenko. The former pound-for-pound king made it a point to use Nakatani as an example to try to show the world he's a much better fighter than Lopez. Lomachenko was the first man to stop Nakatani.
It's going to be hard to top a second-round KO, but there's a lot on the line for Lomachenko in this fight beyond the ego boost of outdoing Lopez -- namely the first shot at the new lightweight king, George Kambosos Jr.