Devin Haney controversy prevails in Vasyl Lomachenko thriller and retains undisputed lightweight titles
Evin Haney controversially prevailed in a thrilling battle with Vasyl Lomachenko for points and retained his status as the undisputed world men’s lightweight champion.
Retaining all belts in arguably boxing’s most exciting division, “The Dream” remains unbeaten 30-0 after a thrilling tactical clash with a former pound-for-pound superstar at the legendary MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It was an incredibly close and exciting fight, with many rounds tricky to score, but Haney closed decisively and secured one with a strong last three minutes after suffering a significant injury in a dramatic eleventh round unanimous decision victory as the three ringside referees scored points of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113 in his favour.
However, many ringside felt that the great Lomachenko’s plucky and energetic effort, which shattered many pre-fight predictions, made him worthy of what could well have been his last chance at the highest level as he attempted to to properly recover from that shock defeat to Teofimo Lopez in 2020, which saw him lose his unified titles.
After the result was announced, boos erupted from the crowd, who gave Lomachenko strong support, but the Ukrainian didn’t say his undisputed dream had been stolen.
Haney – who earned and then initially retained his undisputed status in Australia last year with two comfortable points wins over former champion George Kambosos Jr – had a brief in-ring exchange with Shakur Stevenson following his most recent triumph and now has to decide whether to stay there wants to stay lightweight and catch blockbuster meetings with the likes of him and Gervonta “Tank” Davis, or take the plunge to 140 pounds after he repeated his effort at the weight once again.
On Saturday’s undercard, Oscar Valdez returned to winning ways 13 months after losing his WBC super featherweight world title to Shakur Stevenson in a first professional loss by earning a comfortable points win over Adam Lopez in a thrilling rematch of the 2019 brawl.
Undefeated lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla mastered what was expected to be the toughest test of his career to date, defeating the dangerous Jeremiah Nakathila in just two rounds.
Japan’s Junto Nakatani became the world twoweight champion at 25 by securing the vacant WBO super flyweight title and qualifying in the finals as knockout contender of the year after twice defeating Australia’s Andrew Moloney.
Muhammad Ali’s grandson Nico Ali Walsh’s winning streak ended with a surprise split draw against Danny Rosenberger, while there were early wins for up-and-coming talent Emiliano Vargas, Abdullah Mason, Floyd Diaz and Amari Jones.
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/boxing/devin-haney-vasyl-lomachenko-result-b1082588.html Devin Haney controversy prevails in Vasyl Lomachenko thriller and retains undisputed lightweight titles
