While a potential featherweight title unification between Vasyl Lomachenko and Nicholas Walters is all the rage, and a fight that promoter Top Rank plans on putting together, the promotional company has another 126-pound titleholder, Evgeny Gradovich, who has also been rolling along.
Gradovich (19-0, 9 KOs), 28, known as "The Mexican Russian" for his aggressive Mexican fighting style, is also every bit as confident as Lomachenko and Walters are when it comes to beating opponents.
It's no different for his fourth defense, which will come against Puerto Rico's Jayson Velez on Saturday (HBO, 10 p.m. ET/PT) on the undercard of lightweight titlist Terence Crawford's hometown defense against mandatory challenger Raymundo Beltran at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The broadcast will open with a replay of Manny Pacquiao's six-knockdown demolition of Chris Algieri to retain his welterweight title last Saturday in Macau.
"I always train hard. I never take a day off and I take all of my fights seriously," said Gradovich, who trained with Robert Garcia in Oxnard, California. "I am the 'Mexican Russian' and know all about Velez and the power he brings to a fight.
"I have to deal with that on Saturday. It won't be that difficult actually."
Gradovich, by the way, grew up with unified light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev. They share the same manager, Egis Klimas, and are good friends. All of Gradovich's previous three title defenses have taken place on undercards in Macau.
Velez, who is regarded as the top fighter in middleweight champion Miguel Cotto's promotional stable besides, of course, Cotto himself, is pumped for his first shot at a world title.
Velez (22-0, 16 KOs), 26, trained for two months in Big Bear Lake, California, with trainer Abel Sanchez, who is most known for his recent work with middleweight machine Gennady Golovkin.
"This is a big fight so I went to Big Bear in the mountains to train for the last two months," Velez said. "We had some cold weather but I was able to totally focus on this fight. We had a great camp and Abel put together a game plan to beat Gradovich."