Lomachenko batters Nakatani, scores 9th-round TKO in return

LAS VEGAS — Vasiliy Lomachenko is back, and in vintage form. With Nakatani’s left eye closed after eight devastating rounds, Lomachenko used a flurry of battering lefts in front of an announced sellout crowd of 2,072 inside Virgin Hotel’s The Theater, to finish off his much taller opponent in a statement return in his first bout since an upset loss to Teofimo Lopez in October. Lomachenko’s biggest round prior to the ninth was a destructive sixth, during which he landed a number of punches that caused Nakatani’s head to snap backward several times, eventually bloodying the Osaka-native’s eye, nose and mouth. We can make it happen in Madison Square Garden.” Lomachenko’s loss to Lopez cost the 33-year-old his WBA and WBO lightweight titles and left the former unified champ on the outside looking in on a division that inherited a youth movement of undefeated fighters, including Lopez, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis, who also fought Saturday, defeating Mario Barrios with an 11th-round TKO in Atlanta. I’m fielding offers now from different places in the world.” In the 10-round middleweight co-feature, 2016 Olympian Janibek Alimkhanuly continued his ascension up the ladder of contenders with an impressive TKO destruction of former world champion Rob Brant.