Ukraine’s three-division world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko made a massive statement for his legacy on Saturday against a bigger man in Devin Haney at the MGM Grand.
In reality, Haney moved to 30-0 with 15 KOs and retained his undisputed lightweight crown. However, the win came with a razor-thin unanimous decision victory that should have gone Loma’s way.
An investigation into judge Dave Moretti has been called for in the aftermath.
Despite dropping to 17-3 with KOs, Lomachenko must be content with enhancing his awesome pedigree with a moral triumph. At the end of the day, Saturday night at the Garden Arena in Las Vegas saw another injustice.
The fight began with an aggressive start from Lomachenko. He used his signature combination of feints, footwork, and head movement to close the distance against Haney.
Lomachenko beat Devin Haney
Furthermore, on the inside, Lomachenko had success in landing combination punches. However, on the outside, Haney could land jabs and hooks to the body.
In the later rounds, Lomachenko had more success as his combinations became more frequent.
On his part, Haney appeared to be hurt by Lomachenko’s combos. But he fought back vigorously in the final round and managed to lessen Lomachenko’s aggression with additional body punches.
Haney made the second defense of his undisputed title with scores of 115-113 [twice] and 116-112. The latter was an abomination, as Loma did enough to take a close win.
In the aftermath, to a chorus of boos, Haney hollowly stated: “Lomachenko is a future Hall of Famer. It was a blessing.
“He was my most formidable opponent by far. He is very crafty, and we put on a great fight for the fans.
“He’s a crafty fighter. He turns it up in the championship rounds. I have to take my hat off to him. He’s a great fighter.”
Haney lost
On taking a first loss in all but the result, he added: “This is all experience. My team and I will go back to the house, watch the fight and reflect on it.
“I’ve been at 135 for a long, long time. This is my thirtieth fight. I’ve been here at 135 since I was 16 years old. We will return to the lab and figure out what’s next.”
Philosophically speaking to the end, Lomachenko said: “I don’t want to talk about [the horrible decision]. All the people saw what happened today.
“Before, I thought he would be better. He’s a tough fighter. He’s a good fighter. But he’s not a pound-for-pound fighter.
“I think I showed that I can still be in boxing. I’m in good shape now. And see you next time.
“Right now, I want to go back home and support my country and support my Ukrainian orthodox church.”
After all the Ukrainian people have been through over the past fifteen months, this was the last thing they needed. In addition, Las Vegas stepped in again to drop a huge curly one on the sport.
