After Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion earlier in the day, Denys Berinchyk made sure to cap Saturday on a high note for Ukraine boxing.
In what was an awkward, often sloppy fight, Berinchyk used enough ring generalship to deliver a split-decision victory over Emanuel Navarrete and become the new WBO lightweight world champion. Judges inside the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California scored it 115-113 for Berinchyk, 116-112 for Navarrete and 116-112 for Berinchyk, making the 36-year-old a world champion on the same day his fellow countryman Usyk reigned supreme.
"This is my friend," he said of Usyk. "This is great boxing, great fighters."
Although the bout was unconvential at times, Berinchyk quickly realized that he could get under Navarrete's lunging, sweeping punches. And when he did, Berinchyk managed to keep his shots compact enough to bank rounds and the points that came with them.
He didn't particularly hurt Navarrete with any significant damage in the Mexican fighter's move up to lightweight, but he managed to throw more than a 100 punches than "Vaquero" en route to the victory.
Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs) now joins Gervonta Davis, Shakur Stevenson and fellow Ukrainian Vasiliy Lomachenko as the four lightweight world champions in the division.
Navarette (38-2-1, 31 KOs)
"I came to this division, which is new for me and I knew it was going to be difficult, and it was difficult," Navarrete said.
He added: "Am I happy with the result? Absolutely not, but I take this as a learning opportunity. I understand I have a lot to improve on and that's exactly what I plan on doing."
Here's how the entire Berinchyk-Navarrete main card went.