The close but unpopular decision by scores of 115-113 (times two) and 116-112 not only allowed Haney to keep all four of his world championships and keep big future fights open but to do so regardless of promotional affiliation as Haney's agreement with Top Rank concluded with his win over Lomachenko.
Haney used Lomachenko's characteristic slow start to build a lead on the scorecards and held off the Ukrainan's usual fast finish to win the fight (avoid a draw) by winning the final round and while some are screaming robbery about the decision, I wouldn't have screamed with either man winning a tight nod as I scored it even at 114.
The biggest issue was Dave Moretti's scoring the tenth round for Haney, which was arguably the best round of the fight for Lomachenko but the evening was filled with storylines that actually played out with both fighters delivering excellent performances, Lomachenko winning the crowd in Haney's hometown, and Haney digging deep for the first victory of his career against an elite fighter.
While a Haney-Lomachenko rematch would be welcomed and perhaps warranted, it's pretty clear that Haney is going to move onto other horizons with his free agency status holding the potential for multiple top-level fights, each with loads of intrigue.
A decision to continue working with Top Rank could see Haney against the linear (and WBO) junior welterweight champion, the winner of next month's Josh Taylor-Teofimo Lopez battle, or against the super-talented Shakur Stevenson in a defense of Haney's titles.
Should Haney return to his former promoter (which has been rumored from the day he left) Eddie Hearn's Matchroom boxing, Haney could face Matchoom's newly-inked WBC junior welterweight standard-bearer Regis Prograis or England's Jack Catterall, who most people think defeated Josh Taylor.
A deal with Golden Boy Promotions might net Haney a fight against recently defeated but still marketable Ryan Garcia at junior welterweight or a defense of his lightweight titles, should he choose to stay at 135 pounds, against their exciting contender William Zepeda.
And the biggest payday of them all? A title defense against the popular power-punching Gervonta Davis with Al Haymon's PBC.
Lomachenko's options are more limited without a rematch as he's not able to bulk up against the stronger junior welterweights but he certainly boosted his marketability with his outing and even without Haney, a fight against Shakur Stevenson would bring plenty of attention, and should Haney move up to 140 pounds, Lomachenko would almost certainly receive a chance at one of the vacant titles.
The best single performance of the night may have been former WBO flyweight champion Junto Nakatani moving up to the junior bantamweight division for the WBO's vacant title and brutally knocking out Andrew Moloney in the final round of a fight that should have been stopped in the corner long before then.
Nakatani scored knockdowns in the second and eleventh rounds and a battered Moloney should have been saved from himself before the last round by his corner.
Moloney would pay for his valor as Nakatani slipped a Moloney punch and crunched him with a left hand that put Moloney out before he hit the canvas without a count.
Nakatani is going to make waves in the 115-pound division and I don't see any of the big names in the division, including Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, or anyone else (Kazuto Ioka gave this title up to not face Nakatani) fighting him anytime soon.
Lightweight Raymond Muratalla grabbed his biggest career win with a second-round knockout of Jeremiah Nakathila that saw Muratalla hurt Nakathila and drive him into a corner but I thought most of the follow-up punches missed with one exception and I thought the referee jumped in and ended the fight a bit prematurely in my opinion.
It's still a big win for Muratalla and may enter his name into a potential fight against either Lomachenko or Stevenson if the two don't have other options.
I haven't seen Oscar Valdez's unanimous decision win over Adam Lopez as of this writing.
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