Pound-for-pound star Lomachenko unifies world titles for the first time
Lomachenko beats his second opponent at lightweight, so who’s next? Writes Sean Nam from ringside
BY every measure, the question posed to
Vasyl Lomachenko
back in May after his lightweight tussle against Jorge Linares was a reasonable one. Given the fact that Linares had reportedly rehydrated to close to 152 pounds – 17 pounds above the lightweight limit – and that Lomachenko had suffered the first knockdown of his professional career in the sixth round, would the Ukrainian, who began his career as a featherweight, now think twice before scaling the treacherous heights of another weight class?
The eternally irascible promoter Bob Arum, however, was in no mood to entertain such a query. “What kind of stupid question was that?” he snapped at the poor interlocutor.
Whether or not his handlers care to entertain it, the question concerning the physical limits of Lomachenko, a threedivision world champion, figures to be a recurring topic. It flared up once more at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden, where Lomachenko dropped Jose Pedraza twice in the 11th round en route to a unanimous decision victory and unification of two lightweight belts (WBA and WBO). Judge Tom Schreck turned in a 119-107 verdict, while Steve Weisfeld and Joseph Pasquale had it 117109. The scorecards, however, do not reflect how competitively the fight played out. Boxing News scored the bout 116110 in favour of Lomachenko. Referee Harvey Dock officiated.
From the outset, it was clear that Pedraza was a far craftier version than the one that was battered by Gervonta Davis in January 2017. Using his long jab as he backpedalled around the ring, the Puerto Rican, riding a three-fight win streak, consistently found ways to dissuade the versatile Lomachenko from finding his preferred range of combat. The first round was a distillation of the entire fight: a chess match of feints and slips, with the hardest punch of the round – the straight left – landed by Lomachenko. Indeed, in a nip-and-tuck contest through the mid-rounds, Lomachenko would land the more hard-hitting, telegenic blows. His right shoulder, for which he underwent surgery after the Linares fight, was not a problem.
Still, Pedraza would have his moments.
In the 10th round, the sellout crowd of 5,312 – mainly Ukrainian – grew subdued as they saw Pedraza score with solid left hand leads and stiff jabs from the southpaw stance as Lomachenko pursed him around the ring. It was the best round of the fight for Pedraza, who was tabbed by some bookies as a 12-1 underdog going in.
But then came the electric 11th round, in which Pedraza finally bowed to Lomachenko’s relentless, steam-powered pressure. A flurry of uppercuts and hooks dropped Pedraza at the 38-second mark and a body shot floored him again with 17 seconds remaining. Pedraza, though, would recover and eventually hear the final bell.
“It was [an] interesting fight,” Lomachenko casually told reporters afterward in a somewhat subdued press conference. “[Pedraza] had a very good jab. He changed every round his position. He boxed smart.”
Asked if he would consider a rematch, Lomachenko deadpanned, “Rematch? Why? For who? It’s not a close fight. To me, [it’s] not interesting.”
How the virtuosic whizz will go about handling himself in a division in which he shares no discernible size advantage is an intriguing – and no less impressive – matter. Finding the right opponents, however, appears to be a challenge. Barring an elusive fight with Mikey Garcia, a more realistic possibility might be with someone who was sitting ringside: Richard Commey.
Isaac Dogboe, the Kennington resident, had aspirations to become the next Ghanaian superstar and a fivedivision world champion. Those dreams were put on hold after the WBO superbantamweight titlist was shellacked by the young, unsung and hard-hitting
Emanuel Navarrete from Mexico, spoiling what many thought would be a successful second title defense. The longlimbed Navarrete applied torrid pressure, to go along with a well-timed right uppercut, to keep the shorter Dogboe tottering around the edges of the canvas.
The official scorecards of Allen Nace (115-113), Don Ackerman and Tony Paolillo (both 116-112) were all for the challenger. Benjy Esteves Jnr officiated.
Navarrete claimed to have injured his right hand early in the fight, but if he was in pain, he did not show it. Nor did he so much as flinch when Dogboe landed his patented check left hooks. Apart from a strong opening round, Dogboe looked discouraged for large portions of the fight, going virtually gun-shy in round five, unable to effectively respond to Navarrete’s relentless volley of punches. By the 10th, Dogboe looked thoroughly scotched, both eyes nearly swollen shut, as fervid chants of “Neho!” from ringside supporters died down to worried whispers of “My God, Jesus.”
To his credit, Dogboe was humble in defeat.
“Champions are supposed to keep going under any circumstance,” said Dogboe, “but I just couldn’t get the victory. The best man won tonight.”
The highly touted Honduran-american lightweight prospect Teofimo Lopez put himself in the running for Knockout of the Year when he cold-cocked Mason
Menard with a blistering overhand right 44 seconds into the first round (set for 10). Menard (Rayne, Louisiana) had barely crossed from one end of the ring to the other, when Lopez, who hails from Brooklyn and lives in Las Vegas, struck with his dynamite right. The light from Menard’s eyes went out instantly, as he tipped over and face-planted to the canvas in slow motion like some slapstick routine. Referee Charlie Fitch quickly waived off the bout.
THE VERDICT The tests are getting more taxing for Lomachenko as he moves up the weights.