Lomachenko remains champ after Walters quits on his stool

MANILA, Philippines – Vasyl Lomachenko added a significant notch to his belt, outclassing Nicholas Walters until he quit on his stool following the seventh round to retain the WBO junior lightweight title on Saturday, November 26 (Sunday Manila time) at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Ukrainian Lomachenko (7-1, 5 knockouts), a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was another level above the Jamaican knockout puncher Walters (26-1-1, 21 KOs), who had made his name with a knockout win over Nonito Donaire Jr in 2014. Lomachenko used his southpaw boxing style to find the openings in Walters’ high guard early, moving his head and feet to put himself in angles where he could land but his opponent couldn’t.

Walters’ best round was the third, where he landed a few body punches before bringing a shot or two upstairs. Lomachenko picked up the pace in the fifth round, putting more pressure on him and forcing Walters back. By the seventh round Lomachenko was beating him up, and after the round he stood up and shook his head when asked if he wanted to continue fighting.

“In the beginning he was saying he was a gladiator and he was gonna do this and do that. In the very end he just showed up and he just quit,” said Lomachenko through his manager Egis Klimov.

Walters afterwards attempted to shift blame to his corner, saying it was his trainers who wanted to stop the fight and not himself. Video however shows it was the other way around. Walters blamed inactivity for why he was not accurate with his punches, and by connection, why he elected to pull out of the fight.

“I think basically it was the inactivity,” said Walters.

Two of the judges had the fight 6 rounds to one for Lomachenko at the time of stoppage – or 69-64 – while the third had it a 7-0 shutout at 70-63 for Lomachenko.

Lomachenko, 28, has several interesting fights to look forward to, including a rematch with Orlando Salido, the man who outpointed him in his second pro fight, or a move up in scales to face Manny Pacquiao as their mutual promoter Bob Arum has suggested. – Rappler.com