Madison Square Garden was where it went down last night for the lightweight fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Richard Commey.Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs), the two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-weight champion from Ukraine was up against Commey (30-3, 27 KOs), the 34-year-old Ghanian who was eager to move ahead in the crowded lightweight division.The fight was going as predicted, the Ukrainian was in full control and dominating his lesser opponent.Then, in the seventh round, Loma dropped Commey and in a show of compassion, gestured for the Ghanian’s team to step in and intervene.His pleas were ignored, however, as the towel never came, allowing the consistent punishment to continue until the final bell.Lomachenko sealed a unanimous decision victory with scores of 117-110, 119-108 and 119-10.
Lomachenko gracefully accepted the win, but he acknowledged Commey's resilience throughout the 12 rounds by saying after the fight: “I saw his situation. It was very hard for him. That's why I said, 'Hey, stop the fight'. But he's a true warrior, he has heart, and we continued and we showed 12 great rounds."
Commey’s trainer Andre Rozier felt justified in his decision not to halt the fight, as he defended their actions by saying: "Richard is a warrior and Vasyl is a great champion.
"When he signalled to stop it, for me to take his [Commey] pride and his energy and his diligence away, it would have been a horrible thing to do.
"I told Richard to get up and let's get it together. Try not to make any mistakes and keep working. As you see, he did go the entire 12 rounds of this fight and he fought his heart out."
This victory places the Ukrainian right in contention for another world title fight and he is expected to become a challenger for George Kambosos Jr., who took the WBA, IBF and WBO belts from Teofimo Lopez last month.
When he was asked after the fight if he would travel to Australia for the Kambosos fight, the 33-year-old said: "I will go anywhere I need to go to fight him. I've said my goal. Undisputed lightweight world champion. I stay at 135[lbs] and I need four belts."