Vasyl Lomachenko suffered the first knockdown in his career just like Ghana’s Isaac Dogboe but came back stronger to defeat Jorge Linares via 10th round TKO at the Madison Square Garden earlier today.
The first round started with both boxers throwing more jabs and occasional body hooks but Jorge Linares ended the round the better with some quick left hooks to the body but Lamachenko smartly darted out and avoided a big punch to end the round.
It was a very close fight up until the knockdown in the 6th Round where Linares dominated the round. The two boxers traded uppercuts in the beginnng and after pumping out with a stinging jab which took lomachenko off- guard, Lomachenko visited the canvas for the very first time in his illustrious career.
The champion came back stronger and very steadily as he resulted to the basics by boxing throughout with more jabs and occasional two-punch combinations.
Arguably his best round by far, The 10th round witnessed lomachenko issuing unbridled combination of punches to Linares’s head to good effect.
The moment of succumb came when lomachenko smartly issued a left punch to the liver area of Linares which weakened him as he had no option than to go down in some dramatic style.
Linares for the second time visited the canvas via some incicent body hooks and the referee had no option but to end the fight.
Lomachenko now becomes the WBA lightweight champion of the world with 11 victories one defeat with 9 by way of Knockouts while Jorge Linares now has four defeats, 44 victories and 27 by way of Knockouts.
“My father told me, you need to go to the body, I prepared for the last few rounds and I knew about this punch, but I thought I already did what I needed to do. I was wrong and he caught me.” Vasyl Lomachenko told the press.
He admitted how difficult an opponent Jorge Linares was
“He’s a great fighter and he gave me one more lesson in boxing.” The champion stated.
Truth be told, not many expected Linares to give Lomachenko a difficult fight like what we witnessed.