Vasyl Lomachenko vs Miguel Marriaga

Vasyl Lomachenko retained the WBO super-featherweight championship when Miguel Marriaga’s corner withdrew him after seven rounds at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on 5 August 2017. Lomachenko had dropped the Colombian in the third and seventh rounds and had established such complete control that there was little purpose in sending the challenger out for the eighth. The official result was recorded as a retirement at the end of the seventh round of a contest scheduled for 12. Lomachenko weighed 130 pounds and entered with eight victories and one defeat, while Marriaga, also 130 pounds, brought a record of 25 wins and two losses. Referee Jack Reiss supervised the bout before an announced attendance of 4,102.

The champion was making the third defence of the title he had taken from Roman Martinez in June 2016. Since then, Nicholas Walters and Jason Sosa had both retired in their corners after being steadily deprived of any useful offence. Marriaga was a recognised featherweight contender who had twice challenged for a world championship, losing decisions to Nicholas Walters and Oscar Valdez. He had fought Valdez only three and a half months earlier and was moving up four pounds for another title opportunity. His record contained 21 stoppage victories, but neither his power nor his experience offered an obvious solution to Lomachenko’s speed, southpaw angles and rapid changes of position.

Marriaga began with understandable caution. He was ordinarily a willing attacker, but the danger of leading against Lomachenko was apparent from the opening minute. The champion moved in and out behind his right jab, stepped outside Marriaga’s lead foot and drove the straight left through the centre. Marriaga landed an occasional right hand in each of the first two rounds, but he spent most of the time moving backwards and attempting to prevent Lomachenko from circling towards his blind side. Lomachenko did not merely follow him. He changed direction without crossing his feet, forced Marriaga to turn and struck while the challenger was still attempting to square himself. The early rounds were not especially violent, but they established that Marriaga could neither control the distance nor predict the direction from which the next attack would arrive.

The first knockdown came late in the third. Lomachenko placed a straight left as the fighters’ legs became entangled and Marriaga, already off balance, went down with 37 seconds remaining. He rose quickly and did not appear badly hurt. Lomachenko then backed deliberately into a neutral corner and motioned for the challenger to come forward. Marriaga accepted the invitation with caution, but even at close range he could not organise a sustained attack. Lomachenko slipped the wider punches, turned off the ropes and answered before the bell. The gesture contained an element of showmanship, though it also demonstrated the champion’s confidence that Marriaga could not make him pay for surrendering space.

An accidental clash of heads opened a cut near the outside of Lomachenko’s left eye during the fourth round. The champion had just landed a right uppercut when their heads came together. There was also some marking beneath his right eye, but neither injury affected his movement or vision. Marriaga attempted to increase his physical work and was warned informally as Lomachenko complained of low punches and further use of the head in the fifth. There was no deduction. Lomachenko continued to control the exchanges, striking to the body before bringing uppercuts and straight left hands through Marriaga’s guard. The challenger remained durable, but his attacks were becoming less frequent and increasingly hopeful.

By the sixth, Marriaga was reluctant to engage unless forced. Lomachenko walked him down, worked heavily to the body and landed a right uppercut as the Colombian tried to fold forward behind his gloves. Marriaga could not remain at long range because Lomachenko crossed the distance too quickly, yet he was equally ineffective inside, where the champion turned him or punched around the guard before stepping away. The disparity in footwork was decisive. Marriaga was moving to escape immediate danger; Lomachenko was moving to create the next attack. The champion had reached the stage at which he could vary the pace, pause in front of the challenger and then accelerate before Marriaga had time to react.

Lomachenko increased the punishment in the seventh. He attacked the body with both hands, drove uppercuts through the middle and repeatedly forced Marriaga towards the ropes. The challenger’s resistance had become almost entirely defensive. With one second remaining in the round, Lomachenko landed a sweeping left hand to the head and sent him to the canvas for the second time. Marriaga rose and walked to his corner, but his handlers informed Reiss that he would not continue. The referee ended the contest before the eighth could begin. It was the third successive Lomachenko opponent to retire between rounds, following Walters and Sosa.

CompuBox credited Lomachenko with 186 landed punches against 42 for Marriaga, a margin which accurately represented the absence of competitive balance. The champion had not required an uncontrolled assault or a single decisive blow. He had gradually taken away the challenger’s confidence, position and willingness to exchange. Marriaga had shown courage by remaining upright through long periods of punishment, but courage could not compensate for the difference in speed, timing and tactical control. Lomachenko advanced to 9–1 with seven stoppages and completed his third defence of the WBO title. His next contest, against Guillermo Rigondeaux in December, ended in another retirement after six rounds. Against Marriaga, he had already shown why opponents were finding continued resistance increasingly difficult: they were not only being hit more often, but were being made to miss, turn and reset until the contest became an exercise in survival.

Miguel Marriaga was a decent featherweight contender with 21 stoppages and previous title challenges against Nicholas Walters and Oscar Valdez. But he had fought Valdez only three months earlier and was moving up to face Vasyl Lomachenko, who was operating at a completely different technical level. This was never a fair contest once Lomachenko found his rhythm.

What impressed me was the footwork. Lomachenko was not running around for show; every little step moved him outside Marriaga’s lead foot and opened the straight left or right hook. Marriaga kept turning, resetting and finding the target gone. By the third, he was down after being caught off balance by a left hand. From there, Lomachenko began taking liberties, even backing into a corner and inviting him forward.

The cut beside Lomachenko’s left eye came from a clash of heads, but it changed nothing. He kept attacking the body, stepping around the guard and bringing uppercuts through the middle. Marriaga was tough, but toughness without answers only prolongs punishment. Lomachenko landed 186 punches to Marriaga’s 42 and dropped him again at the end of the seventh before the corner stopped it.

I thought the retirement was absolutely correct. Marriaga was not competing by then; he was surviving. Lomachenko had removed his balance, confidence and willingness to lead. It was a masterclass, although the matchmaking made the result fairly predictable.