Lomachenko beats Pedraza to unify lightweight belts
Braekhus, Shields win decisions on HBO’s last boxing show
NEW YORK, Dec 9, (AFP): Vasiliy Lomachenko added the World Boxing Organization lightweight world title to his World Boxing Association belt with a unanimous 12-round decision over Jose Pedraza on Saturday.
Ukraine’s Lomachenko, a threeweight world champion who had never before unified two titles in the same class, knocked down Pedraza twice in the WBO title he won with a unanimous decision over Ray Beltran on Aug 25, was the first fighter to go the distance against Lomachenko since Suriya Tatakhun in a featherweight world title bout in 2014.
Lomachenko had stopped eight fighters inside the distance since then.
On the undercard, Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete battered previously unbeaten Isaac Dogboe to seize Dogboe’s World Boxing Organization super bantamweight world title.
Navarrete rocked Dogboe in the 10th round and dominated the rest of the way with two judges awarding him the fight by scores of 116-112 and a third making it 115-113.
Navarrete, an underdog against the London-based Ghanaian champion, made the most of his height and reach advantage.
Dogboe, his face bloodied and swollen, had to dig deep to avoid a knockout over the final two rounds.
“It was a great fight, and Emanuel Navarrete fought like a true Mexican warrior,” said Dogboe, who fell to 20-1 with 14 knockouts.
He was making the second defense of the title he won with an 11th-round
Jose Pedraza hooks and punches Vasiliy Lomachenko during their WBA/ WBO lightweight unification bout at The Hulu Theater at Madison Square
Garden on Dec 8 in New York City. (AFP)
knockout of Jessie Magdaleno on April 28. On Aug 25 in Arizona he stopped Japan’s Hidenori Otake.
Navarrete, 23, improved to 26-1 with 22 knockouts.
He hasn’t lost since dropping a four-round unanimous decision to Daniel Argueta in his fourth pro bout six years ago.
Meanwhile, Cecilia Braekhus defended her welterweight titles with a dominant unanimous decision over Aleksandra Magdziak-Lopes on Saturday night in the final fight of the last HBO boxing telecast.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields also defended her middleweight titles with a dominant unanimous decision over Belgium’s Femke Hermans, winning every round on every scorecard to improve to 8-0 in her two-year pro career.
Also: LOS ANGELES:
Transgender boxer Patricio Manuel made history Saturday with a unanimous decision victory over Mexican super-featherweight Hugo Aguilar in Indio, California.
Manuel, 33, became the first transgender male to fight professionally in the United States.
Manuel fought in the 2012 US Olympic trials as a female, but a shoulder injury spelled the end of a bid to make the team for the London Games after just one bout.