Lomachenko: It's good that I got up, got ready and finished it



It's the modern way to want to call someone the greatest, and Lomachenko hasn't even fought 10 full rounds as a lightweight yet.

Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jorge Linares took center stage in the boxing world on Saturday, May 12, with the two boxing stars stepping into the ring at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

He rose with a second to spare but referee Ricky Gonzalez had seen enough, waving the fight off to little protest from a beaten Linares. His father, Anatoly Lomachenko, is his trainer.

What won Lomachenko (11-1, 9 knockouts) the WBA lightweight title was a flawless left body shot that sent Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) to the mat.

LINARES. Attempting the impossible will be Jorge Linares (44-3, 27 KOs), a tough, no-nonsense banger who likes to stand in front of opponents and trade. Lomachenko was ahead 86-84 on judge Steve Weisfeld's scorecard, while Linares was up by the same score on Robin Taylor's card, and Julie Lederman had the fight even.

After several shots to Linares' head, a left hand to the body ended the bout as Lomachenko made history.

The fighter widely known as Vasyl said this week he prefers to use Vasiliy, his legal name.

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While it was widely acknowledged that Linares, a Venezuelan who came in on a 13-bout winning streak over six years, including seven world title bouts, might pose the most hard test yet encountered by Lomachenko, few boxing insiders outside of Linares' home country or inner circle actually expected him to, you know, win.

Five saw Lomachenko tee off on Linares at close quarters, circling around Linares making him miss and switching the angle centre ring.

"I'm the natural lightweight here - he's coming up", Linares told reporters. In the second, Lomachenko used his speed to frustrate Linares and make him miss, ending the round with a scoring flurry.

"I thought the fight showed Linares is a helluva fighter, and Loma just stayed in there and knocked him out with a body shot", Arum said.

In round six, Linares would land a straight right down Broadway and put Loma on the deck for the first time in his career. Linares got up on wobbly legs, but wasn't fit to continue. Linares was firing back at all times with his jab which was scoring but seemed too eager to follow up with the right hand. "It happens", Lomachenko said.

The Venezuelan tried to develop local success and won the next few rounds, but already in the tenth round Lomachenko did everything not to allow the judges to announce the results of their notes. But that was his last highlight. He faced a world-class champion, who was bigger, more experienced and who in the sixth-stanza had knocked him down for the first time as a pro and first time since 2007.

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