During a very busy boxing weekend, former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters returned to action in a fight that could perhaps best be described as a low-key affair. The 37-year-old “Ax Man” earned an eight-round unanimous decision victory over 19-17 (11) Luis Diaz Marmol in a bout in Santa Marta. Fighting at 140 lbs., Walters was a master of the fight, winning broadly on one card while being somewhat closer on the other two – the scores were 80-72, 78-74 and 78-74.
Walters improved to 27-1-1 (21) with the win, his first fight since coming back in November 2016 when Vasily Lomachenko stopped him. Walters’ return was planned before the end of the week, with a number of dates from previous years failing. Now that he’s back, and fighting as a 140-pounder, it’ll be interesting to see how far Walters can go in his ring.
A crowd favorite back in the day, Walters turned pro in 2008 and was good enough to defeat Vic Darchinian and Nonito Donaire, with Walters winning by stopping both big names. Lomachenko’s loss proved to be a bad loss for Walters in many ways. That fight was quite a beating for Walters, while no one likes to be quiet, and Walters chose to stay in his chair after the seventh round was over. This was during a period of time when High Loma used to force good fighters to quit pooping when fighting him.
For several years it seemed as though the world had seen another of Walters after that terrible night, but now he’s back. Let’s see how long and how far Walters can go. 37 is not all that goes for a lowweight fighter these days, and Walters hasn’t had many professional fights. Maybe he can do something with his return.
