Vasyl Lomachenko Retains WBO Junior Lightweight Title
Vasyl Lomachenko took care of Miguel Marriaga in front of a worldwide stage, further asserting himself as the top junior lightweight boxer in the world.
Lomachenko defended his WBO title with a seventh-round stoppage of Marriaga in the main event of an ESPN card, the second in a span of five weeks.
The champion, competing in his 10th pro fight, dominated the fight from the beginning with no opportunity for Marriaga to create any meaningful offense. Lomachenko dropped Marriaga in the third round en route to the big win, but Lomachenko did not come out of the fight unscathed. An accidental headbutt in the fourth round opened a cut just over Lomachenko’s left eye.
The fight came to an end when Marriaga’s corner mercifully stopped the fight after a brutal seventh round in which Marriaga took extreme punishment.
Also on the ESPN was Raymundo Beltran’s latest step into fighting for a world championship. Beltran squeaked out a majority decision over Bryan Vasquez (96-94, 96-94, 95-95) to retain the WBO-NABO and NABO lightweight titles.
The co-feature fight had a bit of a controversy, however. Vasquez weighed in at 136.8, which is 1.8 pounds above the lightweight limit of 135 pounds, making Vasquez ineligible to win Beltran’s regional titles.
