Vasiliy's standing across the boxing world rarely vacillates. Lomachenko last night accentuated his credentials as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet with a brutal, liver-compacting stoppage of Jorge Linares at Madison Square Garden.
Linares proved a fine opponent, however, to such an extent that he introduced Lomachenko to the canvas in the sixth round. Lomachenko would later justify this as the product of his being too relaxed but the Ukranian ensured this was no lament: he stopped the fight in the tenth round with a ferocious body shot. The victory means Lomachenko is the quickest boxer to win world titles in three different divisions.
Here's the winning shot:
The TKO that made Lomachenko the new WBA lightweight world champion. ?? #LinaresLoma pic.twitter.com/xXSt22Ni4g
— ESPN (@espn) May 13, 2018
On the undercard, Michael Conlan coasted to a 12-round win over Ibon Larrinaga. While there was to be no devastating knockout from Conlan, he rarely looked threatened in sealing the fight 80-72, per all the judges' scorecards.
This fight amounted to Conlan stepping up his preparations ahead of his homecoming fight on June 30th.
