Lomachenko beats Pedraza to unify lightweight belts

NEW YORK: Vasiliy Lomachenko added the World Boxing Organization lightweight world title to his World Boxing Association belt with a unanimous 12-round decision over Jose Pedraza on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Lomachenko, a three-weight world champion who had never before unified two titles in the same class, knocked down Pedraza twice in an explosive 11th round.

Two judges saw it 117-109 for Lomachenko while a third made it 119-107 for the 30-year-old who was fighting for the first time since having shoulder surgery in the wake of his 10th-round technical knockout of Jorge Linares on May 12.

“Everything is good — I’m healthy 100 percent,” Lomachenko declared after wrapping up the victory to improve to 12-1 with nine wins inside the distance.“I am happy,” he said. “I (moved) a little closer to my dream, to my goal. That’s to unify all of the major lightweight belts. Two more belts, and maybe we can make in the next year a fight with Mikey Garcia,” he said.

Garcia is the unbeaten World Boxing Council 135-pound champion.Pedraza, making his first defense of the WBO title he won with a unanimous decision over Ray Beltran on August 25, was the first fighter to go the distance against Lomachenko since Suriya Tatakhun in a featherweight world title bout in 2014.

Lomachenko had stopped eight fighters inside the distance since then.“He did a very good job,” Lomachenko said of Pedraza’s staying power. “I respect Pedraza, the Pedraza team — very good job.”

On the undercard, Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete battered previously unbeaten Isaac Dogboe to seize Dogboe’s World Boxing Organization super bantamweight world title.Navarrete rocked Dogboe in the 10th round and dominated the rest of the way with two judges awarding him the fight by scores of 116-112 and a third making it 115-113.

Navarrete, an underdog against the London-based Ghanaian champion, made the most of his height and reach advantage.Dogboe had to dig deep to avoid a knockout over the final two rounds.“It was a great fight, and Emanuel Navarrete fought like a true Mexican warrior,” said Dogboe, who fell to 20-1 with 14 knockouts.