Difference Between Haney-Loma Being Close And ‘Robbery’

Saturday night’s unanimous decision verdict for undisputed lightweight champ Devin Haney over Vasiliy Lomachenko is still a controversial topic, even days afterwards.

And, it’s something that we spent significant time on for this week’s “Fight Freaks Unite Recap” Podcast, as part of the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed.

You can hear the lengthy discussion between our insider Dan Rafael and me on whether the victory is justified for the unbeaten champion Haney or whether Lomachenko realistically should have been given the win? This is, especially with how well he fought down the stretch.

Just click below for our full comments,

One important distinction on the recap pod that Dan makes is: the difference between disliking the decision in a close fight (which Haney-Loma was) and what is a clear ‘robbery’ on the scorecards of an obvious winner.

‘Robberies’ like former lightweight champ and hall of famer Pernell Whitaker, who was significantly better and at times dominated fellow legend Julio Cesar Chavez in a 1993 showdown that should have been Chavez’s first career loss after being an incredible 87-0.  Yet two of the judges scored the fight dead even 114-114 for a majority draw to let Chavez escape the Alamodome that night with his unbeaten streak still in tact.

Or, moving forward the clear disastrous scoring of future hall of famer Manny Pacquiao’s obvious win in his 2013 battle with Timothy Bradley, also in Vegas like Haney-Loma. Round after round Pacquiao controlled the action and landed more significant shots. Yet, instead of an at least 2-3 point easy win, “Pac-man” heard Bradley’s name called on two 115-113 scorecards stopping his 15 championship fight win streak in the process.

Back to Saturday

The punch numbers backed up those that backed a Lomachenko win, as well.

The final Compubox numbers favored the challenger, as they tallied him out-landing Haney overall at 124-110 and that included, 95-90 in power shots. And, while Haney had a sizable lead in their metric headed into the championship rounds (10-12), they had Lomachenko landing 44 total shots to just 17 for Haney in the final three frames.

Still, it was close, especially with Haney winning at least four rounds legitimately early.

I had the BFW card at 115-113 (7 rounds to 5 for Loma) and “Big Dan” had it 114-114 on his.

Close. Disputable… but not a blatant “robbery” that other fights have been.