By David Finger

WBA and WBO lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko once again showed the world why he is considered quite possibly the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world after winning a lopsided twelve round decision over Jose Pedraza in a lightweight unification fight. But even his most ardent supporters seem to recognize that there is a glitch in the Matrix. Lomachenko looked solid in defeating Pedraza by twelve round decision. But he also seemed to be bothered by the jab and overall slickness of the Puerto Rican champion and, at least for the early rounds, didn’t really look like the Lomachenko of old.

“It was an interesting fight,” Lomachenko said during the post fight press conference in the Hulu Theater after the fight. “He has a very good jab. He prepared very good. Every round he changed position and he boxed smart. I think people who love boxing liked this fight.”

Lomachenko was good natured but dismissive when asked by one reporter “what happened in round eleven?”

“Have you see the fight?!” Lomachenko fired back. “Have you watched the fight?! Then why are you asking me?!”

He then followed the joking rebuke with a more in depth summary of the round.

“I had two more rounds and I threw a lot of punches. I wanted to finish this fight…I was close.”

For the loser, Jose Pedraza, he was respectful of the new unified champion.

“He was definitely one of the best fighters in the world,” Pedraza said of Lomachenko. “My team and I are very happy with my performance because we did a great fight with one of the best fighters in the world. We are very happy with the performance.”