Vasiliy Lomachenko has explained why he decided to give Richard Commey a reprieve and call for his opponent’s corner to stop the fight. Former world lightweight champion Lomachenko eased to a comfortable unanimous points decision against Ghanian challenger Commey, having dropped his opponent in the seventh round and controlling the entirety of the bout.
The Ukrainian boxer actually called for Commey’s corner to throw in the towel for the fighter on two occasions in that seventh round, instead of trying to take advantage of his clearly wounded opponent, but the fight continued.
Vasiliy Lomachenko: ‘I saw his situation.’ Commey was able to last for the full 12 rounds, although he never looked like winning the fight, and Lomachenko explained to Sky Sports after their one-sided bout why he appealed to the opposition corner to put an end to the contest.
“I saw his situation. It was very hard for him. That’s why I said, ‘Hey, stop the fight’,” Lomachenko explained.
“But he’s a true warrior, he has heart, and we continued and we showed to people 12 great rounds.”
Richard Commey’s trainer explains his decision. Commey’s trainer Andre Rozier explained after the fight why he didn’t throw in the towel despite Lomachenko’s suggestion, arguing that he would have taken his fighter’s pride away had he done so.
“Richard is a warrior and Vasiliy is a great champion. When he signalled to stop it, for me to take his [Commey] pride and his energy and his diligence away, it would have been a horrible thing to do,” Rozier argued.
“I told Richard to get up and let’s get it together. Try not to make any mistakes and keep working. As you see, he did go the entire 12 rounds of this fight and he fought his heart out.”
Lomachenko is now in line to get an opportunity to reclaim the lightweight belts, as he is expected to be named as a mandatory challenger for George Kambosos Jr, who became a world champion two weeks ago with a win against Teófimo López.
