Vasiliy Lomachenko still has it at 36.
The Ukrainian boxing wizard, who hadn’t worn a major belt for more than three years, capped a dominating performance by stopping George Kambosos Jr. in the 11th round to capture the vacant IBF 135-pound title Saturday night (U.S. time) in Perth, Australia, the loser’s home country.
The official time of the stoppages was 2:49.
Lomachenko (18-3, 11 KOs) is a pound-for-pounder and three-division titleholder but the last time he could call himself a champion was 2020, the year he was upset by Teofimo Lopez and lost his lightweight titles.
He won three consecutive fights after that to earn a shot at champion Devin Haney only to lose a disputed decision in May of last year.
The oddsmakers were convinced he would finally regain a belt against the former champ Kambosos at RAC Arena, making him about a 5½-1 favorite. And they were right.
Lomachenko outclassed his tough, but overmatched opponent, picking Kambosos apart with quick, accurate shots from every conceivable angle and taking almost nothing in return.
Kambosos landed punches here and there — including some hard body shots — but he couldn’t connect enough to be competitive.
Lomachenko seemed to be on his way to a unanimous decision victory when he suddenly ended the fight in the penultimate round. The key blow was a left to the gut, which forced a worn down and bloodied Kambosos to take a knee.
He followed with a flurry of unanswered punches, which was enough to convince Kambosos’ father to throw in the towel and the referee to stop the one-sided fight.
The CompuBox stats reflected Lomachenko’s dominance. He landed 175 of 480 punches overall (36.5%), Kambosos only 40 of 371 (10.8%). The winner was even more impressive in the power punch department, connecting on 105 of 210 (50%). Kambosos was 36 of 189 (19%).
In other words, Lomachenko couldn’t have been much more effective even though he was fighting a former unified champ.
He can now set his sights on one of his talented fellow beltholders, Shakur Stevenson (WBC) or Gervonta Davis (WBA), both of whom are far superior to Kambosos.
Promoter Bob Arum, who handles Lomachenko, said before the fight on Saturday that he would try to match him and Stevenson later this year. And Davis called out Lomachenko on social media during the fight.