THE VIEW'S BOXING REVIEW
JUNE
purchase on them than Lomachenko's. Russell's hand speed has built up almost mythical status, but seldom was it on show here.
The Washington-born man had a decent sixth, but after that it was all Lomachenko, who began to up the pace in the eighth and ninth rounds, hurting Russell for the first time and staring to sit down on his shots a little more. Gone was the uncertainty about how exactly he was going to address the balance of defence and attack which was evident early in this bout and throughout the Salido one - instead, the Ukrainian now introduced sharp uppercuts to his attack, and Russell visibly lost heart as the fight drew to a close. That said, his chin seems to be made of sturdy stuff - he needs to go back to the drawing board in other areas, but at least we know for sure now that he can take a shot.
The last round or two was all too easy for Lomachenko who, in spite of Giampa's poor card, was awarded the title thanks to the aforementioned judges DeLuca and Russell seeing it 116-112 in his favour.
(which gave him the IBF belt at 147 lb) and Lee Purdy seemed to have revived him, but being outhustled by Porter has left him in a dark place again, and a million miles away from that dream pay day against Floyd Mayweather which some suspected he'd have got had he not let Porter get the better of him.
Standing in his way this time was the rugged veteran Jesus Soto Karass, who has slipped in to that classic role of divisional gatekeeper at Welter in recent times. The last two years have seen Karass stopped by Maidana and also Keith Thurman, but also score upset wins over Selcuk Aydin and former WBC title holder Andre Berto. Nobody really expected him to beat Alexander on Saturday night, but the feeling was that he could maybe give the 27-year-old a gut check - the kind of gut check some have theorised he doesn't do too well against.
As it turns out, he couldn't do that, either. Was it because the long, gruelling career has finally sapped Karass of what little he had left, or was it because Alexander, on his day a finely balanced counter-puncher, was just too good to allow him to?
I'd go even further than that, scoring as I did 118-110, but that's besides the point. Lomachenko, who is taking huge risks with his matchmaking but who is also garnering well-deserved respect and admiration from boxing fans the world over for doing so, has the world at his feet now - but Russell has some hard thinking to do, and decisions to make.
I feel that a lack of testing opponents on the way up has cost him dear in this instance. He's young enough to bounce back, but if he wants to avoid being another Howard Davis Jr (1976 Olympic gold medal winner who never fulfilled his potential as a professional, despite legendary speed of his own) then he needs to match himself tougher and work on a plan B, because as we saw here, simply being able to throw fancy, but light combinations at a rate of knots won't win you world titles.
Further down the card, we saw the return of Devon Alexander, six months after losing his IBF Welterweight belt to Shawn Porter. As he was after losing his Light-Welterweight unification against Tim Bradley in early 2011 and then scraping by Lucas Matthysse with what can at best be described as a dubious verdict a few months later, Alexander finds himself under a bit of pressure at the moment, pressure to prove that he really is the elite level fighter he's hinted at being from time to time. Wins over Marcos Maidana, Randall Bailey
I'd say it was a little of both. Karass looked shop worn, as he did when Thurman took him apart in nine one-sided rounds last December, but right from the off it was clear that there was more urgency and focus in Alexander's performance than there had been the last time we saw him in action.