UKRAINIAN WBO super-featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko saw off his latest challenger, Colombian Miguel Marriaga after seven rounds at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Lomachenko, a southpaw, started out slowly to take a close look at what Marriaga could do. The Colombian swung for his body as Lomachenko came forward. The Ukrainian waited for openings to appear, cracking Marriaga with a left cross-right hook.
Marriaga had moved up to super-feather after losing at featherweight to WBO champion Oscar Valdez. At 130lbs Lomachenko was the bigger, stronger man. The champion was in control, peppering Marriaga with fast jabs and bringing in the left more and more as the fight progressed.
Marriaga did catch Lomachenko with a right hook, but it hardly deterred the Ukrainian. A double left forced Marriaga to the canvas in the third round. An apparently frustrated Lomachenko then stood in a corner to beckon the Colombian in.
In the fourth round Marriaga continued to retreat. Lomachenko brought in vicious left hooks but a clash of heads cut him by his left eye. Marriaga was under pressure and in danger of being overwhelmed.
Lomachenko continued to prise apart his opponent’s defence. Marriaga tried to land a jab but Lomachenko blasted his left straight through the middle. By the sixth round Lomachenko was toying with him.
In the seventh round he hammered Marriaga into the ropes, uppercuts flying through in blurring attacks. A solid left hook dropped the Colombian just before the bell. Lomachenko had battered him into submission and Marriaga was pulled out before the eighth round.
On the undercard Raymundo Beltran took a 10 round points win over Bryan Vasquez.
