Vasiliy Lomachenko is back in vintage form, completely thrashing Masayoshi Nakatani over nine rounds of action before he ultimately forced the stoppage.
Lomachenko said in the pre-fight interview that his shoulder was injured against Teofimo Lopez and planned to demonstrate what he could do with two good arms, and did exactly that tonight — dominating a fighter that Lopez struggled against.
Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) didn’t waste any time ‘downloading data’ tonight, instead coming right after the much taller and longer Nakatani (19-2, 13 KO), probing with his immaculate footwork and getting angles on Nakatani, strafing him with left hands to head over and over again. It was quite surprising to see the much smaller fighter get into punching range and land at will, but that’s exactly what happened tonight.
In the first round there was an awkward clash of heads that split Loma’s forehead, but that only reinforced his focus as he took it to Nakatani from there on, dropping Naktani in the fifth round. Lomachenko would batter Nakatani in the following rounds but in the ninth round things became brutal, with Lomachenko repeatedly pasting Nakatani’s badly swollen right eye with left hands until Nakatani collapsed under the attack. The official stoppage came at 1:48 of Round 9.
