Lomachenko vs. Linares

Date: Saturday, May 12

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Location: Madison Square Garden — New York City

In front of 10,429 in attendance, Lomachenko survived a knockdown in round 6 to win via TKO in round 10 after a perfectly placed liver shot to claim the WBA (Super) and The Ring lightweight titles. In doing so he became the fastest fighter ever to win titles in 3 different weight classes (only 12 professional fights) shattering the previous record of 20 fights, which was held by Jeff Fenech.

Link to fight

Lomachenko wore Linares down with his fast shots through the first 9 rounds, before finishing the fight in round 10. Linares slowly beat the count but looked too hurt to continue. Referee Ricky Gonzalez stopped the fight at 2 minutes, 8 seconds of round 10. The loss snapped Linares’ 13-fight win streak.[87][88] At the time of stoppage, two judges had each fighter ahead 86-84 on their respective scorecards and the third judge Julie Lederman had it 85-85 even.[89] After the fight, Lomachenko said, “It was a great fight. That right hand [that knocked me down], it was a great punch. It happens. I prepared for the last few rounds, and my father [and trainer Anatoly Lomachenko] told me, ‘You need to go to the body.’ Linares is a great champion, and the fight was good for the fans and everybody.” Speaking of the knockout punch, Linares said it was ‘perfectly landed.’ De La Hoya also congratulated Arum on the fight and told Arum it was good experience working together. According to CompuBox Stats, Linares landed 207 of 739 punches thrown (28%), this included 139 power punches landed and a total amount of 77 body shots landed. Lomachenko landed 213 of 627 punches thrown (34%), with 112 jabs.[90][91]For the fight, Linares was paid a career high $1 million, with Lomachenko receiving a $1.2 million purse.[92]

source wikipedia

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“Match of the Day” highlights the best fights in combat sports in a nod to the BBC’s long running Premier League recap show of the same name.