Friday saw the return of Vasyl Lomachenko as he destroyed former WBA champion Anthony Crolla in stopping him with one right hand in the fourth round in Los Angeles to retain his WBA and WBO lightweight titles.
Lomachenko looked to be completely healed from his shoulder injury in 2018 and at peak form after dominating but not quite as sharp against Jose Pedraza in his last fight following the surgery.
Lomachenko dominated every round and almost halted Crolla in the third when Crolla was called for a technical knockdown when his bottom rested on a rope which kept him from falling to the floor.
Lomachenko celebrated and members of the California commission entered the ring as well thinking the bout was concluded before being told of the knockdown call by referee Jack Reiss and being chased from the ring.
With seconds remaining, Crolla made it to the bell but was living on borrowed time and that time was only fifty-eight seconds when Lomachenko smashed Crolla with a right that sent him face down on the canvas, where Jack Reiss may have counted to one before waving the fight off.
Lomachenko broke a knuckle on his right hand with the punch that ended the fight but is still expected to defend his titles as expected in September, possibly in a unification event against IBF champion Richard Commey although Commey may decide for another bout due to his own hand issues and the unification could wait until December.
The fight most would want to see for Lomachenko would be unifying against the other lightweight champion Mikey Garcia, but that continues to be unlikely until 2020 at the earliest.
The ESPN card also would see the light heavyweight debut of WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez against journeyman Tommy Karpency and Ramirez looked more impressive than he has in recent fights at 168 pounds.
Ramirez won every round in dominant fashion and a body shot that broke the ribs of Karpency caused the veteran to not come out of his corner after the fourth round.
Ramirez could return to super middle for a rumored title unification fight against WBA champion Callum Smith or go after one of the three champions that Top Rank promotes at light heavyweight.
Meanwhile, in Monterrey, Mexico on DAZN, the Hamburglar made an appearance as heavily favored Jaime Munguia kept his WBO junior middleweight belt by a controversial majority decision over lightly regarded Irishman Dennis Hogan, who fights out of Australia.Hogan started quickly, banked some early rounds and surprisingly considering the reputation of Munguia as a puncher, landed the harder shots throughout the bout.
Munguia did rally late in the fight and the final three rounds were filled with toe to toe action, so Munguia did manage to make the fight close and I could maybe see a draw if you gave Munguia a close round or two someplace, but I had Hogan a 7-5 winner (115-113) and that may have been mildly generous to the champion, who certainly was given the benefit of the doubt in his home country.
Munguia should give Hogan a rematch, should he stay at 154, but weight problems may have to send him to 160, where his struggles in his last two fights make me think that he may be caught between a rock and a hard place- Stay at 154 and allow that problems making the weight are causing problems with fighters that he should outclass, move to 160, where the weight should be easier on him physically, but a talented class could take advantage of his still being green against top competition.
In the boxing challenge, I added six points (three from Ramirez, two from Lomachenko, and one from Munguia) to Ramon Malpica's four (two from Ramirez, one each from Lomachenko and Munguia) to move my lead to 78-69.
Back tomorrow with a look at the PBC on FS1 card, which I haven't watched yet
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