Vasyl Lomachenko broke down in tears when he returned to his dressing room after his unanimous decision defeat to Devin Haney on Saturday night.
The judges’ scorecards divided opinion at the end of the close and highly competitive contest, with some fans branding it a ‘robbery’.
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The fight began with an aggressive fast start from Haney in the first minute, who nailed his opponent with a few notable shots to head and body early on.
Lomachenko responded in the opener by using his swift footwork to find a route past Haney’s jab to the inside where he began to let off combination punches.
Despite being known for starting slowly, the Ukrainian surprised the American by wasting no time to get into the action.
Haney led with his jab in round two and began to counter well with body shots when Lomachenko attempted to work his way to the inside.
It was a high level boxing exchange right from the off as both men outfoxed one another in individual moments.
The third was a positive session for Loma as he zipped in and out of range, landing with more regularity.
Haney fired back with a big left hook, but was starting to find himself on the end of consistent combinations.
This pattern continued into the first minute of round four as the American was unable to simply keep the Ukrainian at bay with his jab like many expected him to do pre-fight.
He did show improvements as the round went on though, countering with his right hand more effectively when Loma launched his assaults.
Lomachenko was less accurate early in the fifth as Haney began to find a defensive rhythm and had success with uppercuts to the body.
However, another momentum shift saw the challenger flip things around again as he had a positive impact with his speedy exchanges not long later.
As they hit the halfway point at the end of the sixth, the fight appeared to be completely in the balance.
Haney began best in the second half by controlling most of round seven.
The eighth and ninth were quieter rounds, with the champion seemingly in control for the most part while the challenger struggled to close distance as well as he had previously.
Loma came on strong towards the end of round nine though and drew a strong response of hard body shots from Haney.
As they entered the championship rounds it still felt like everything was up for grabs because there had been enough close rounds for scorecards to be far from definitive.
Lomachenko stormed forwards in the tenth and briefly staggered Haney. The American regained his composure, but the swelling around his left eye grew.
The champion failed to keep the challenger at bay in round 11, which was huge for the Ukrainian.
It seemed Lomachenko could not miss as he dominated the latter stages, stepping to Haney and hurting him with a right hook as he fired away at will.
In the final round, Haney executed one final momentum shift in the fight and regained control distance, avoiding any further punishment.
When the bell rang, it was unclear who would emerge victorious.
The judges scorecards were read out as 116-112, 115-113, 115-113, all in favour of Haney for a unanimous decision.
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Giving his immediate reaction, Loma said: “I don’t want to talk about this. All people see what happened today. I can’t talk about this right now, it’s just not a comfortable moment for me.”
He was later seen heading back to his dressing room and breaking down in tears.
Loma later explained: “I just remembered that my son today called me seven times and every time told me, ‘And the new, and the new.’ I remembered this moment, it was very hard for me.”
