Vasily Lomachenko dealt the wrong cards – Kommersant

An attempt by the outstanding Ukrainian boxer Vasily Lomachenko to add the title of absolute world champion in lightweight (up to 61.2 kg) to his chic track record ended in failure. In the battle for this status, he lost in Las Vegas to the American Devin Haney, it seems, largely due to the favor of the judges to the opponent, who won by a minimal margin on points.

This fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas is destined to add to a rather long list of really important fights, the results of which are tightly labeled “controversial” for years, and having not a neutral, but rather a negative connotation. That is, controversy in this case means precisely injustice, and not the possibility of interpreting the outcome in different ways.

The match could turn into a beautiful story. By the age of 35, Vasily Lomachenko has collected a chic track record. Before turning pro, he won Olympic gold twice. Then, having opened a new stage of his career, he won champion titles in three weight categories, and was also recognized as an absolute phenomenon of his kind, a standard of originality, or something. Recently, he has not had the easiest period in his life. In 2020, an unexpected loss to the daring Cuban youth Teofimo Lopez. Then – a return to the top, which last spring was complicated by the situation in his native country, which disrupted Lomachenko’s training process. But he still waited for a chance to fight for the title, which he lacked to make Palmares look very attractive: absolute, owning all four significant belts – the World Boxing Council (WBC), the World Boxing Association (WBA), the International Boxing Federation (IBF ) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) – there are still few world champions. Everyone is the undisputed giant of the genre, simply by definition.

And Vasily Lomachenko did almost everything to get this title.

Devin Haney, his terribly talented owner, who is 11 years younger than the Ukrainian, of course, was good in the first half of the fight.

Even without knowing what the judges counted, it was not difficult to guess that after six rounds, Haney, who was famously working with a jab, moving coolly, leads confidently. But there was also a second half.

Lomachenko has long been accustomed to the fact that he slowly accelerates, but, having accelerated, he shows a completely different boxing. And this fight was no exception. Starting from the seventh round, the Ukrainian constantly surprised Haney with his trademark tricks – strikes from unexpected angles, cunning slips with an instant transition to a counterattack.

In some rounds, the champion looked so pale against his background that it was even strange to remember what exactly his bookmakers considered the clear favorite.

And about the feelings of the public, her reaction to the announcement of the judge’s verdict perfectly speaks. All three referees gave the win to Devin Haney. One – 116:112, two – 115:113, with a minimum, in other words, advantage. So, the audience whistled and hummed the way people whistle and hum, who have just been unceremoniously swindled.

Then these people probably checked the numbers and received confirmation of their correctness. The CompuBox system fixed the advantage of Vasily Lomachenko in all major aspects. Small, but, whatever one may say, an advantage.

124 hits on the target against 110 for the opponent in total, and accented – 95 against 90.

And also, taking advantage of the resulting transparency of boxing, leading media resources such as ESPN were amazed at how referee Dave Moretti assessed the tenth round. In this round, Lomachenko literally mocked Haney, pouring a series of blows on his opponent. Moretti gave it to an American.

After the end of the fight, both Vasily Lomachenko himself and his manager Egis Klimas, of course, were asked to comment on the scores on the judges’ cards. Klimas guaranteed that he would protest the decision, apparently knowing full well that protests in such cases are useless. Lomachenko only answered sadly that “apparently, he doesn’t understand something in boxing.”

Alexey Dospekhov