By the time Devin Haney walked into the post-fight press conference at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the 24-year-old undisputed lightweight champion was aware of the widespread perception that judges had erred in awarding him a unanimous decision. to know. Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday night.
Haney, who has lightweight ties from all four major sanctioning bodies, dealt with heavier punches over the 12 rounds of the championship, but the punch stats said Lomachenko, a 35-year-old from Ukraine, threw and landed more.
While many fans discussing the fight on social media lamented Haney’s win, undefeated contender Shakur Stevenson, who was looking for a confrontation with Saturday night’s winner, called the outcome a “robbery.”
Stevenson may have exaggerated the case – two judges scored the fight 115-113 for Haney, while a third let Haney win the fight 116-112, all relatively close. But the outcome, and the reaction to it, highlight a paradox built into high-level boxing.
Fans are clamoring for big matchups between elite fighters, and recently the lightweight division has made it. An April matchup between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia sold out T-Mobile Arena and generated 1.2 million pay-per-view purchases. Saturday’s fight between Haney, the undisputed lightweight champion, and Lomachenko, a former three-division world champion, had even more stakes, with four world titles on the line.
But closely contested periods often lead to questionable decisions. In a fight where neither fighter had a clear advantage, one judge, Dave Moretti, scored eight rounds in favor of Haney.
Amid all the online brawls, Haney told reporters that the win felt final to him.
“People can say what they want to say,” said Haney, now 30-0 with 15 knockouts. “The judges had a unanimous decision.”
Leading up to Saturday’s fight, Haney predicted he would knock Lomachenko out of retirement. He possessed edges in height and reach, and said his improved punching power would help him make Lomachenko look average.
According to CompuBox, Lomachenko landed 124 of 564 punches, compared to 110 of 405 for Haney. In amateur boxing, where judges favor output over punching power, and where Lomachenko won two Olympic titles, it would probably have earned him the decision to outsmart his opponent.
Much of Saturday’s fight took place at close range, favoring shorter-armed Lomachenko, who repeatedly scored with lead left hands against Haney’s forehead.
“For me, it’s a big, big question,” Lomachenko, now 17-3 with 11 knockouts, told reporters at a news conference. “What happened?”
Pro fights are scored round by round, so cumulative punch stats can be misleading. Lomachenko defeated Haney in five rounds and Haney defeated Lomachenko in five other rounds. In the remaining two frames, the fighters landed the same number of punches.
Many of Haney’s connections were heavy blows to the body that dulled Lomachenko’s advances. Occasionally he landed sharp left hooks to limit Lomachenko’s lateral movement. Haney acknowledged fighting on Lomachenko’s favored range, but said he did it on purpose.
“I knew I had to bring it to him and fight a fight you haven’t seen me fight before,” Haney said. “Not every fight will be pretty.”
Still, round 10 stands out for people who want to doubt the judges of the fight.
Statistically, Lomachenko had an advantage – 11 punches landed to Haney’s five. He also appeared to be the aggressor and appeared to stun Haney with one of his punches. But Moretti awarded the 10th to Haney.
His scorecard was one of many reasons Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas said he intended to file a formal protest on Monday.
“I guarantee you we will destroy that decision,” Klimas told reporters.
The other two scorecards, which favored Haney by one round, more reflected the tight margins and fast pace of the fight.
During the break between rounds 7 and 8, Lomachenko’s cornermen urged him to throw more punches. He opened round 8 aggressively and ran into a sharp body shot from Haney. When Lomachenko finally landed his own jab, the packed crowd chanted “Loma.” Haney had stepped back before the bell.
In the final round, Haney resumed his two-fist attack. When Lomachenko landed a straight left, Haney answered with two hooks. Just before the final bell, Haney landed a long left jab.
Lomachenko left the fight impressed with Haney’s skills.
To a point.
“If you talk about Linares, if you talk about Lopez – to me they are better than Haney,” Lomachenko said, referring to Jorge Linares and Teofimo Lopez, two of his former opponents.
Lomachenko’s future in the ring remains hazy. He proved himself still an elite performer in a talent-laden lightweight division, but has acknowledged that this fight was probably his last chance to become an undisputed champion.
For his part, Haney had hoped Saturday’s fight would clear any doubts about his championship qualifications, but the result seems to have only emboldened potential opponents.
“Devin’s not on my level, and I’m going to show it,” said Stevenson, the former 130-pound champion.
Haney, who has battled at 135 pounds since puberty, discussed a probationary move to the 140-pound super lightweight class. However, he has no intention of relinquishing his lightweight titles. Instead, he teased mega fights against Stevenson and Davis, who goes by the nickname Tank.
“Me and Tank is a huge fight,” he said. “It’s going to happen, sooner rather than later.”