PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KO) retained his WBO junior lightweight title against Nicholas Walters (26, 1-1, 21 KO) of Jamaica on November 26 in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan arena.
Walters retired after the seventh round, resulting in a win for Lomachenko. Referee Tony Weeks asked Walters if he wanted to continue before the start of the eighth round and Walters replied, “No, I don’t.”
By the seventh round, Lomachenko had landed 33 percent of the punches he had thrown (30 out of 90). Walters had landed nearly 15 percent (five out of 34).
Promoter Bob Arum, overseeing his 2,000th event after 50 years in boxing, noted, “We watched a modern master, a magician in action tonight. It surprised me he quit, but Walters was going to get knocked out. Lomachenko had worked the kid out and was going to stop him in the next round.”
Lomachenko, a southpaw, is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012) with an amateur record of 396-1. He turned pro in 2013 and previously held the WBO featherweight title from 2014 until this year, when he won the WBO junior lightweight title against Roman Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KO) of Puerto Rico on June 11 at Madison Square Garden Theater with a fifth-round knockout.
After the fight, Lomachenko said he wants to fight WBC junior lightweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-2, 17 KO).