The main event was upon us as Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2 with 17 KOs) defended his WBO World Junior Lightweight belt against Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (5-1 with 3 KOs). Surprisingly to what is normally a very pro-Puerto Rican crowd, Lomachenko was clearly the fan favorite and was cleared loudly as he came out. Martinez actually came out to a few boos.
Through the 1st 2 rounds, Lomachenko was aggressive, yet showed the high amount of skill he possessed. In round 3, Lomachenko, landed a few more combos and even though he may not have seriously hurt Martinez, he did win the round, and by a solid margin. As the 4th round started, the crowd continued with the chants of Lomachenko as he continued to give the crowd what they wanted by dominating the round. After 4 rounds, Lomachenko was just picking Martinez off. Even though they had thrown the same amount of punched, Lomachenko landed twice as much as Martinez.
As round 5 started Lomachenko started early going in for the kill. Then at 1:09 of the round, Lomachenko dropped Martinez, HARD. There was no doubt that he was not getting back up. This was a clean finish with no controversy. Vasyl Lomachenko had KO’d Roman Martinez to become a 2 time World Champion in only 7 professional fights.
After the fight was over, Lomachenko said he needs more fights to get better. He said he wants to improve by fighting the best fighters. He said that one thing he likes about Olympic boxing is that the best fighters fight the best fighters and that he wants to do that in the 130 pound division. He said he didn’t come in looking for a knockout, but he just wanted to come in looking to do his job.
Then finally he said that he DOES want a rematch with Salido and that he did not say he didn’t want to fight him if he wasn’t a champion. He said the Salido fight made him a better fighter and he would love to avenge that fight for him and his fans. Then he ended it by dedicating the performance to the Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali.