POUND-FOR-POUND STAR VASYL Lomachenko recovered from his first career knockdown as a professional to secure a sensational stoppage of Jorge Linares at Madison Square Garden, New York, on Saturday night.
Lomachenko’s triumph in an exhilarating exhibition of boxing saw him rip the WBA World lightweight belt from Linares’ grasp, in doing so becoming a three-weight world champion in only his 12th fight as a paid athlete.
In his achievement, the two-time Olympic and world amateur champion joins the pantheon of punch-for-pay greats. At the time of his 10th-round stoppage, Lomachenko led on one scorecard, trailed on another and was level on the third.
Venezuelan Linares, who had vowed to suss out ‘Loma’s timing before committing to any power shots, was the aggressor but largely inaccurate in a tentative opener: Lomachenko, ever-fluid, kept his head in perpetual motion and out of the line of fire, rendering it difficult for Linares to detonate with anything significant.
The Ukrainian landed a tidy left to the body moments before the second bell sounded.
In the second round, Linares returned fire to Lomachenko’s rib cage but was left worse the wear for it: Lomachenko popped him back before raising a roar from the electrifying crowd with a forceful combination to the body and through Linares’ guard upstairs.
Though Linares found marginally more success than he had a verse prior, Lomachenko finished on the right side of a fleeting exchange to squeak it.
The ante was upped in three as both men came to terms with the sizeable task in hand. Though each had weighed in at 134.6 pounds, Linares outweighed Lomachenko by close to a stone in the ring. His size wasn’t proving an issue, however, as Lomachenko tiptoed and swivelled into advantageous positions and left his mark.
Linares did catch Loma with a sweet left uppercut with a minute remaining, but the two-time Olympian again made him pay with a stinging combo to the body.
The smaller man was sensational for most of the fourth, increasing his output and throwing in threes and fours to either floor. A clever right uppercut-jab hybrid jarred Linares, who was feeling the heat but remained mobile and active. He timed Lomachenko perfectly with a succinct overhand right with 30 seconds ’til bell, but the eastern European again had the last laugh as he rubber-stamped his dominance.
Lomachenko kept his foot on the pedal through five, feinting and pivoting before landing in twos and threes. An eerily accurate three-punch combination – with a nonchalant left the icing on the cake – brought the Madison Square Garden crowd to its feet at the bell; Linares, bothered and swollen, gave the challenger a look of near disbelief before retreating to his corner.
He delivered a tasty combination to Loma’s body halfway through the sixth, but took a left to the midriff for his troubles. And then a gasp: as Lomachenko wandered forward in his southpaw stance, Linares dropped a bomb of a straight right down the pipe and landed Lomachenko on the seat of his pants.
Lomachenko is knocked down in Round 6!
— ESPN (@espn) May 13, 2018
He's back up as we head into Round 8 for #LinaresLoma. pic.twitter.com/ecMdXrIG8v
The Ukrainian was stunned, too: though he beat the count with ease, he spent the rest of the round on his bike as Linares contemplated the pursuit of greatness. In the end, the South American coasted to the bell, cognisant that were he to over-commit he might undo his 10-8 round.
The knockdown was Lomachenko’s first taste of canvas since the 2007 world amateur championships – his maiden decking as a pro.
He enjoyed the better of a busy seventh having fully returned to his senses; going back to his basics – which would be considered highly advanced by most – he jabbed and prodded his way back into control, though did swallow a couple of neatly-delivered hooks before we headed for the eighth.
‘El Nino de Oro’ delivered a one-two to the kisser at the resumption, but halfway through eight Lomachenko upped the ante again, pouncing upon the cut which now flanked Linares’ right eye.
Linares responded with some decent work, but Lomachenko probably entered the ninth in the lead having shaded another high-octane round.
Halfway through nine, Linares had outlanded Loma 112-83 in power shots, and he might have levelled the scorecards, too, in a stanza which saw him buzz the lighter man with razor-like attacks.
And then, with his aura of near-invincibility under threat and the WBA World lightweight title fully up for grabs, Lomachenko dropped the curtain from nowhere.
The challenger put together his most thrilling combination of the contest, rocking Linares with a fusillade delivered from either hand. As the Venezuelan retreated, hurt, Lomachenko feinted upstairs before sneaking a scythe-like left hook beneath Linares’ tucked elbow, straight to the liver. Linares crumpled to a heap, and though he regained his footing at the count of eight, remained on his haunches in agony.
Referee Ricky Gonzalez waved the fight off as Lomachenko leapt to the ropes and saluted the wild New York crowd.
The TKO that made Lomachenko the new WBA lightweight world champion. 💥🥊 #LinaresLoma pic.twitter.com/xXSt22Ni4g
— ESPN (@espn) May 13, 2018
A the time of the stoppage, 2:08 into the 10th, Lomachenko was up by two, down by two, and level on the three judges’ respective scorecards.
Linares lost little other than his title in defeat, and produced a performance which justified his own positioning in many pundits’ pound-for-pound top-10s. It’s the first ‘L’ on his record since March 2012.
Lomachenko, the new champion, has won championships in three weight classes since suffering a controversial defeat to Orlando Salido in his second outing.
With his 10th-round TKO of Jorge Linares, Vasiliy Lomachenko becomes the 7th fighter to win world titles at 126 (featherweight), 130 (junior lightweight) and 135 (lightweight).
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 13, 2018
His 12 fights are the fewest to 3 division titles in boxing history. h/t @CompuBox pic.twitter.com/GCcdczqYK4
Lomachenko showed he's human at 135 pounds against a truly elite Linares. He also rose to the occasion with incredible skill and relentlessness.
— Brian Campbell (@BCampbellCBS) May 13, 2018
What a fight.
There's talent and then there's Vasyl Lomachenko. There's nobody in combat sports, maybe sports as a whole, with his combination of raw gifts, technical skill, and the ability to read and adjust.
— Patrick Wyman (@Patrick_Wyman) May 13, 2018
That was a tremendous fight. Lomachenko doing well early, gets knockdown, recovers and wins via a deadly body shot in the 10th. What a joy to watch in person.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 13, 2018
What a promoter's dream Lomachenko is.
— Luke Thomas (@lthomasnews) May 13, 2018
Nearly perfect amateur. Double gold Olympic champ.
In 1st ESPN fight, scores TKO.
In 2nd ESPN bout, makes another double gold medalist quit.
In 3rd ESPN fight, gets pushed, then scores liver shot stoppage.
This is how stars are born.
As you were. Lomachenko the GAWD.
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) May 13, 2018
Quality player, very surprised he was dropped.
I’d be very surprised if he was dropped in the first place as he needed match time. He’s better than Jager in all facets that I’ve seen, scrum, maul and as we’ve all seen, in the lose. Jager, just not seeing it with him especially scrum. Am I missing something???
@Noel Lynn: Bealham is certainly well ahead of Jager and all other TH (Furlong apart) in Ireland, but I think Jager is doing a better job than you’re giving credit for. He’s been very good at scrum time for munster, especially when he came up against Porter, and was solid against Wales. His ruck defense was excellent both clearing and counter rucking and his goal line defense was superb. His lineout work wasn’t up to scratch IMO and he still needs to improve his S&C but he’s certainly got a high ceiling and a great addition to our TH stock.
@Noel Lynn: Short answer – yes
Easily the best TH after Furlong, who seems to have recovered some of his previous form. Great to have several options here between Furlong, Bealham, O’Toole and Jager. The order is not important as they are all playing well at the moment.
Literally no one else is suprised.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m surprised, arguably pushing Furlong for a starting spot
Bealham is a quality player but I think it’s getting a bit clearer that farrell and his coaches are huge fans of jager. To go from the ‘training squad’ to the verge of the 1st choice 23 over a couple of weeks is pretty phenomenonal
@munsterman: jager has plenty to work on to over take Bealham. He may not have over taken TO’T yet, so 1 step at a time.
@Patrick O’Sullivan: well I’ve never seen farrell move so quickly to promote a player in a meaningful match. Even players like Joe Mccarthy and crowley had to put in their time in camp for a year or so. There’s every chance that bealham will be back-up th v England but you wouldn’t bet on it
@munsterman: There’s every chance that Bealham will start and Jager on the bench if Furlong injured.
@Con Cussed: yea that’d be the most likely scenario I’d imagine. It’s quite tough on otoole who’s been very good for Ireland too
@munsterman: Agreed. It just means the pressure is now on all four to keep the momentum up. It’s a tough position and injuries abound so can see them all getting a chance in the future.
This could mean Furlong has an injury concern… I hope not!
Has anyone authoritative said that Bealham was dropped? As far as I recall the mood music before the Welsh game was that Bealham had proved himself across a number of matches to be no great step down from Furlong; and that Farrell was taking advantage of a game we were almost certain to win to have a look at Jäger off the bench.
Depressing stuff
@Kevin Ryan: when have we ever seen farrell use a competitive game to just have a look at a player? The only time he ever changes up his side much is v the most tier2 of tier2 nations in Nov or else gets A games set up
@munsterman: Giving a guy a debut as a bench prop is not really changing the side much, though. And if he didn’t pick this game, he’d have to wait until the Autumn, assuming SA too strong. Anyways, we’ll see what Farrell does with the selection for the England game.
The story around Bealham is a bit of a head scratcher. Why was he dropped? Some say he needed time off as a new dad. Personally I believe the coaches think Jager is a better prop. When your coach uses faint praise to describe your last performance then you are in trouble. I think Farrell described Bealham’s last outing as “decent enough”. In all these scenarios the public never gets a true picture until someone writes a book.
@Tom Reilly: I seem to have missed him saying that about Bealham – was that in a press conference? I checked the post Italy match press conference again to refresh my memory, and Faz was effusive in his praise of the set piece, calling it excellent and top notch, so I’m surprised he would then be naming Finlay as not being a top performer. A lot of media said that Finlay was doing as much as he could possibly do to challenge Furlong for the starting berth on the back of his performance against Italy, so I don’t think I’m the only one who thought he performed excellent in that match.
@Tom Reilly: ah, I heard it now – it was from the pre-Wales match conference. To be honest, the way I hear it, it seemed more so saying that Oli deserved a chance in spite of Bealham having a decent performance. TBH, I think he couldn’t say “Wales’ scrum is poor so this is the best chance to give Oli a tryout in the six nations window”, so has to justify it on the basis of competition for places. If he said Finlay was excellent, then he would effectively be needing to say that Oli is even better, which would be a huge amount of pressure to put on a debutant. So, he kind of has to nearly qualify Bealham’s performance so as not to put down Wales.
@JoeVlogs: As I said earlier it is hard to know what exactly is going on. I think most people think Bealham did not deserve to be dropped from a playing point of view. Maybe something else is going on.
The euphemism that Alex Ferguson developed to replace “dropped” was “rotated.” The image that most of us have of a “dropped” player is of someone so bad in the last match that they had to be replaced. Sometimes it is about building squad depth, other times you were the Lions captain last week and this week not in the 23 – an utterly unexplainable event.
I suspect that Furlong has twinged his hamstring. If Furlong is out, Bealham absolutely starts ahead of Jager – and we all know that.
@PatN: I meant calf not hamstring
Bealham should be pushing Furlong for a starting position not getting dropped
When was the last v good game from Furlong?
@Derek Casserly: Last week!
There is much debate about the word “dropped” concerning Bealham. Was he or wasn’t he dropped. IMO if a player is available for selection, has been selected everytime he is available and then he is not selected, then he is indeed deemed “dropped”.
Let’s stop using the word “dropped”. To play at elite level you need a squad of 35 players and the ability to get game time into all of them. ( let’s not repeat RWC errors from the past). Rotatated is a much better word.