Vasiliy Lomachenko Knocks Out Jorge Linares, Wins WBA Lightweight Title

Jorge Linares proved that Vasiliy Lomachenko was human, but not even knocking down Lomachenko wasn’t enough to stop him.

After being knocked down in the sixth round, Lomachenko bounced back and knocked out Linares with a crushing left body hook in the 10th round to win the WBA and Ring Magazine lightweight title, becoming the fastest man in boxing history to win a world title in three weight classes. The fight headlined a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card from Madison Square Garden with 10,429 fans witnessing the next chapter of Lomachenko’s highly successful career thus far.

Lomachenko’s speed and accuracy were the deciding factor in the early going. Lomachenko landed numerous quick combinations and uppercut that split Linares’ defense. Lomachenko battered Linares enough that he was already bleeding from his nose just four rounds into the title bout. Things seemed to be going smoothly for Lomachenko until Lomachenko got what he described after the fight as another boxing lesson in the sixth round.

As Lomachenko was confidently hopping around the ring in the sixth round, Linares connected with a hard overhand right as Lomachenko moved forward and was immediately knocked down. The knockdown opened up the fight for Linares to take control.

After a couple of back-and-forth rounds, Linares’ power punches was starting to put him in position to pull off the win. Despite Lomachenko looking beatable, it was one hard left hook to Linares’ liver that sent the champion onto one knee and unable to get back up by the referee’s 10-count. Lomachenko had won another world title.

According to CompuBox, Lomachenko barely outlanded Linares 213 to 207 in total punches but was more accurate with Lomachenko landing 34 percent of his punches and Linares landed 28 percent of his punches.

At the time of the stoppage, there was no clear winner on the judges’ scorecards. Judge Julie Lederman had scored the fight an 85-85 draw while Robin Taylor had Linares ahead on his scorecard 86-84 and Steve Weisfeld has Lomachenko up 86-84 on his scorecard.

Having won a world title at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight in just 12 fights, Lomachenko shattered Jeff Fenech’s record being the fastest man to win a world title in three weight classes. Fenech became a three-division champion in 1988 when he won a featherweight world title in his 20th professional fight. Lomachenko also holds the WBO super featherweight title and will likely have to decide in the coming weeks which title he will have to vacate in favor of keeping the other one.