Lomachenko unifies title with victory
NEW YORK (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 three-weight world champion who had never before unified two titles in the same class, knocked down Pedraza twice in an explosive 11th round.
Two judges saw it 117-109 for Lomachenko while a third made it 119-107 for the 30-year-old who was fighting for the first time since having shoulder surgery in the wake of his 10th-round technical knockout of Jorge Linares on May 12.
‘‘Everything is good – I’m healthy 100 percent,’’ Lomachenko declared after wrapping up the victory to improve to 12-1 with nine wins inside the distance.
‘‘I am happy,’’ he said. ‘‘I (moved) a little closer to my dream, to my goal.’’
That’s to unify all of the major lightweight belts.
‘‘Two more belts, and maybe we can make in the next year a fight with Mikey Garcia,’’ he said.
Garcia is the unbeaten World Boxing Council 135-pound champion.
Pedraza, making his first defense of the WBO title he won with a unanimous decision over Ray Beltran on August 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.
‘‘He did a very good job,’’ Lomachenko said of Pedraza’s staying power. ‘‘I respect Pedraza, the Pedraza team – very good job.’’