Devin Haney defeated Vasiliy Lomachenko by a unanimous decision to retain his undisputed 135-pound championship.
The official scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
A full report will be posted shortly.
***
ROUND 12
Haney wouldn’t give in. I think he edged that round. He was busier, he landed some good shots. He might’ve won the fight in the process. I have no idea how this fight is going to be scored. Great technical fight no matter who has his hand raised.
ROUND 11
Brilliant round for Lomachenko. He dominated Haney in that round, landing almost at will. Haney looks off. Maybe he’s just tired, maybe he just doesn’t have answers for what Lomachenko is throwing at him. Bottom line: It’s all Lomachenko now.
ROUND 10
Lomachenko has the momentum now. He’s the one landing the clean, eye-catching shots. And Haney is having trouble connecting. It’s as Lomachenko has solved whatever riddles Haney’s presents. Haney didn’t look good in his corner after the round; looked like he was worried.
ROUND 9
Another good round for Lomachenko, although once again the round was hard to score. He’s done a good job landing his straight left, something doubling it up. He’s letting his hands go. At the same time, Haney continues to connect on his share of accurate shots.
ROUND 8
Better round for Lomachenko? He was active, he landed some nice straight left hands. Haney matched him punch for punch, though. Another close round.
ROUND 7
Again, these rounds are competitive. Lomachenko actually had a good round; he was busy and relatively effective. Haney is still landing the cleaner, more-eye-catching shots, though. That obviously stands out to the judges.
ROUND 6
Haney is jabbing well, although he could be doing it more. And he could be winning the fight with his body work. He can’t miss to the gut. That said, it was another competitive round. Lomachenko had some good moments too.
ROUND 5
There isn’t much separating these guys but Haney is landing the cleaner shots, both the body and head. And he’s doing a really good defensively; Lomachenko is finding it difficult to land cleanly.
ROUND 4
I feel sorry for the judges. How the hell are you supposed to score these rounds. That said, Haney had a pretty good round. He continued to land to the body and connected on some good head shots. Again, though, it was close.
ROUND 3
Good round for Lomachenko, who was busier that round and landed some eye-catching blows. Let’s face it, though: Both of these guys will have to work extremely hard for everything they get. That’s what happens when the skill level is this high.
ROUND 2
Great, high-level, back-and-forth stuff. One guy lands a punch or combination and the other responds in kind, although neither is landing big shots. This is absolutely even at this moment.
ROUND 1
Good energy, pretty good pace but not many punches landed. Both guys are still trying to find their ranges. Opening round was hard to score.
***
We’re only a few minutes away. Enjoy the main event.
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Former two-division titleholder Oscar Valdez defeated Adam Lopez by a unanimous decision in a 10-round lightweight bout, the winnerz’s first fight in more than a year.
The official scores were 98-91, 98-92 and 97-93.
Valdez (31-1, 23 KOs) survived an early knockdown to stop Lopez in 2019. Lopez survived on Saturday but the fight wasn’t close, as Valdez controlled the fight from the outset.
He stalked the elusive Lopez (16-5, 6 KOs) and landed hard, accurate shots throughout. Lopez did a good job of surviving but didn’t do enough offensively to make the fight competitive.
Lopez’s nose appeared to have been broken by an accidental head butt in the final round but he managed to hear the final bell.
***
Lightweight prospect Raymond Muratalla stopped Jeremia Nakathila in the second round of a scheduled 10-rounder. The official time of the stoppage was 2:48.
Muratalla (18-0, 15 KOs) hurt Nakathila (23-3, 19 KOs) with a straight right and then followed with a flurry of hard blows that prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Nakathila, a veteran from Namibia, had never been stopped before Saturday.
***
Junto Nakatani stopped Andrew Moloney with a massive left hand in the 12th round to the win the vacant WBO 115-pound title, giving the Japanese fighter a major belt in a second division.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:42 of the final stanza.
Nakatani (25-0, 19 KOs) put the game, but overmatched Moloney down three times but it was the last one that won’t soon be forgotten.
The new champion appeared to be on his way to a wide unanimous decision victory when the southpaw landed a looping left that instantaneously rendered Moloney unconscious.
Moloney lay prone for several minutes before getting to his feet and congratulating Nakatani.
A full report will be posted shortly.
***
Nico Ali Walsh lost his perfect record.
The grandson of Hall of Famer Muhammad Ali and Danny Rosenberger fought to a split draw in an eight-round middleweight bout. One judge scored it for Ali Walsh 77-75, another had the same score for Rosenberger and the third scored it even.
The inexperienced Ali Walsh (8-0-1, 5 KOs) had difficulty coping with the movement of Rosenberger (13-9-5, 4 KOs).
***
Devin Haney is scheduled to defend his undisputed 135-pound championship against Vasiliy Lomachenko on pay-per-view Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las VEgas.
The featured bouts on the card begin at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in show.
Boxing Junkie will post the results of the main event and other featured bouts immediately after they end. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – a fight story, photo gallery and analysis – will follow on separate posts the day of the fight and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
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