Vasiliy Lomachenko couldn’t finish off Richard Commey in the seventh round Saturday night, but he did more than enough to beat him.
Lomachenko knocked Commey to the canvas in the seventh round, landed the harder shots with more consistency and beat the former IBF lightweight champion by unanimous decision in the main event of a 10-fight card at Madison Square Garden.
All three judges – Eric Marlinski (119-108), Tony Paolillo (117-110) and Tom Schreck (119-108) – scored Lomachenko the winner of their 12-round lightweight bout.
The comeback trail continued tonight for @VasylLomachenko at @TheGarden 🔋 #LomaCommey | @BoostMobile pic.twitter.com/ibSAoANtRx
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) December 12, 2021
The wide scoring notwithstanding, the 34-year-old Commey fought reasonably well, particularly after it appeared Lomachenko would knock him out in the seventh round of their entertaining encounter.
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A courageous Commey came back from that knockdown relatively early in the seventh round, made the final five rounds competitive and redeemed himself nearly two years after Teofimo Lopez stopped him in the second round of their IBF lightweight title fight at The Garden.
Ukraine’s Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) won a second straight fight since losing the WBA “super,” WBC “franchise” and WBO lightweight titles to Lopez in October 2020 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.
In his first fight following that 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat to Lopez, Lomachenko dominated Japan’s Masayoshi Nakatani (19-2, 13 KOs) on his way to a ninth-round, technical-knockout victory.
The three-division champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist is already ranked number one among lightweight contenders rated by the WBC and WBO. Bob Arum, Lomachenko’s promoter, said prior to their fight that he expects the WBC and the WBO to declare Lomachenko the mandatory challenger for newly crowned champion George Kambosos Jr.
Ghana’s Commey (30-4, 27 KOs) was the second straight opponent Lomachenko fought that had previously lost to Lopez.