By: Sean Crose
Just hours after Oleksandr Usyk won his brilliant heavyweight battle against Tyson Fury, the WBO lightweight title was at stake in San Diego. Emanuel Navarrete, the thrilling 38-2-1 action fighter squared off against the 19-0 Denys Berinchyk in a scheduled 12 rounder. The winner would enjoy such esteemed company as Vasyl Lomachenko, Shakur Stevenson, and Tank Davis. Suffice to say, neither man looked like he belonged in the ring with those notables on Saturday. The fight, frankly, was something of a slobberknocker where neither man landed particularly well on the other. The problem was that each fighter employed awkward ring tactics, which subsequently made the fight awkward.
Not that there wasn’t fun to be had in the ESPN broadcast fight. Navarrete always brings the action, and Berinkchyk was clearly in it to win it. In short, the fight was a high octane affair – it just wasn’t very good, at least not for a championship level contest. Ultimately, it was Berinchyk who left the ring with WBO belt in his possession thanks to a split decision nod from the judges. The official ruling made Berinchyk the most recent Ukrainian fighter to win a major title, though it was clear Berinchyk was nowhere near as impressive as his countryman Usyk was earlier in the day.
Images: Top Rank