How would Vasiliy Lomachenko perform in his first fight back since losing his unified lightweight world titles to Teofimo Lopez?
Well, he looked like the Loma of old, as he sent Masayoshi Nakatani to the canvas twice to win via TKO at the 1:48 mark of the ninth round at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night. DAZN News had the fight scored 79-72 for Lomachenko at the time of the stoppage.
"I’m back and on track," Lomachenko said in his post-fight interview.
Smelling blood like a shark in the water, Lomachenko started targeting Nakatani's eye with one power shot after another. A straight left from Lomachenko made Nakatani hold on for dear life. Lomachenko looked to close the show and did just that as a left hook stunned Nakatani and one more left for good measure sent the Japanese fighter to a knee, before the fight was stopped.
Instead of taking his time as he did against Lopez in October, the former three-division champion came out firing on all cylinders and pressured Nakatani from the opening bell. He used his world-class footwork to open the angles to blast Nakatani with one left hand after another.
The punishment was starting to take its toll on Nakatani. At the end of the fifth round, Lomachenko landed another left, and Nakatani tried to back up, and Lomachenko blasted a right hand to send Nakatani down for the first time in the fight.
So, what's next for Lomachenko? The father of Teofimo Lopez was at the fight and told ESPN that his son would fight Lomachenko next, but it would have to be immediately after his fight with George Kambosos Jr. That fight is currently scheduled for Aug. 14. Lomachenko said he'll be ready.
"He has a fight in the future with Kamabosos," Lomachenko said. "December, January, February. I’m waiting."
According to CompuBox, Lomachenko connected on 104 out of 204 attempts (48.6 percent), with 89 of those shots being power punches out of 152. In the ninth round alone, Lomachenko connected on 19 of 29 power punches.
Here's how the whole Lomachenko-Nakatani main card went.