Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko is world champion again.
More than three years after losing his IBF, WBA and WBO lightweight titles to Teofimo Lopez, Lomachenko (18-3) delivered a virtually flawless performance against George Kombosos Jr. on Saturday night to become the new holder of the IBF lightweight champion belt. He scored a victory by knockout. technical in the 11th round.
At 36, Lomachenko is also back on the path to victory, after a failure against Devin Haney in a championship fight a year ago.
Dominant throughout the fight on Saturday, Lomachenko delivered a powerful bodyweight shot to Kombosos Jr. (21-3) with 30 seconds left in the 11th round and the latter quickly took a knee to the ground.
After his opponent got up and faced the count, Lomachenko came back with several blows that forced the referee to stop the fight.
Earlier, Kambosos Jr. began the ninth round with a cut near his right eye and the injury worsened throughout the round.
Earlier in the evening during this gala, Pedro Guevara got the better of Andrew Moloney by split decision (115-113, 113-116, 115-113) to capture the WBC interim super flyweight title.
Cherneka Johnson, for her part, won the WBA bantamweight title with a victory by majority decision (98-92, 96-94, 95-95) against Nina Hughes. The announcer, however, announced the victory to Hughes, before changing his mind after his error.
Boxer Imam Khataev, who belongs to Eye of the Tiger Management, won his fight by knockout. technical in the sixth attack against Ricards Bolotniks.
A first champion for Wales
In another gala presented on Saturday, Lauren Price became the first Welsh woman in history to be crowned women’s boxing champion in either category.
Price (7-0-0) dominated Jessica McCaskill to defeat her by unanimous decision (90-82, 90-82, 90-82), after the fight was stopped early in the ninth round as McCaskill (12-4 -1) had an eye that was too swollen, the result of contact between the two boxers’ heads in the fifth round.
With this triumph, Price captured the WBA welterweight championship belt. She is still perfect in seven professional fights.
” I am speechless. The atmosphere is as electrifying as when I won the gold medal at the Olympics,” Price told SkySports after the fight.
Cruz and Romero fight a draw
Then in another gala, the world championship fight between Erika Cruz and Nazarena Romero ended in a draw.
Cards of 97-93 for Romero, 97-93 for Cruz and 95-95 were handed out by the judges, which allowed Cruz (17-2-1) to retain his WBA light flyweight title.
For her part, Romero (13-0-2) still remains undefeated in 15 professional fights. Ironically, his last fight also ended in a draw.
