Vasyl Lomachenko survives scare to win comeback fight and set up Devin Haney showdown

Vasyl Lomachenko was given stern test by Jamaine Ortiz on Saturday night in New York, but ultimately came through with a unanimous decision victory.

The Ukrainian got the job done in his comeback fight after serving as part of his country’s war effort, and will now look to face Devin Haney in an undisputed title showdown next year.

The fight began with a positive start for the underdog.

As usual, Lomachenko began slowly while observing his opponent’s style in the early rounds.

Ortiz took advantage of this and established his jab to good effect, giving the Ukrainian bruising under his right eye.

In round three, Loma increased the tempo and landed some laser accurate left hands.

One of these briefly staggered Ortiz, but he was not overawed and continued to use his size to trouble his opponent.

As the rounds progressed, Lomachenko worked to close the distance more often and found a home for his punches with more regularity as a result.

As they reached the halfway point, Ortiz appeared to be slowing down slightly with swelling under his left eye resulting from the right jab.

The American responded well to this though and picked up a second wind as he battled through rounds seven, eight and nine.

Lomachenko’s inactivity was telling as Ortiz capitalised and picked up points, seemingly taking the lead with three rounds to go.

The Ukrainian reacted by upping the tempo in the championship rounds.

Ortiz had never been 12 rounds before and this was telling.

Lomachenko did enough to win these final sessions and therefore the fight.

The judges scored it a unanimous decision with scores of 115-113, 116-112, 117-111.

Lomachenko and Haney met in the ring after the bout and verbally agreed to face one another in 2023.