Denys Berinchyk 19-0 (9) was crowned the WBO lightweight champion with a split decision win over three-weight world titleholder Emanuel Navarrete 38-2-1 (31) at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California on Saturday night.
Mexico’s Navarrete, 29, was having his first fight at 135-pounds after previously winning the WBO title at super bantamweight, bantamweight and super featherweight.
The extra poundage proved a bridge too far as natural lightweight Berinchyk, 36, of Ukraine was able to match his physicality and was largely unmoved by his power.
Judge Patrick Morley scored the vacant title bout 115-113 for Berinchyk, while Pat Russell saw it slightly wider for the winner with a score of 116-112. Dissenting judge Benoit Roussel had the fight 116-112 for Navarrete.
Berinchyk won the title on the same day this his countryman Oleksandr Usyk 22-0 (14) became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world with a split decision win over Tyson Fury 34-1-1 (24) in Saudi Arabia.
“This is my friend,” Berinchyk said of Usyk. “This is great. Great boxing. It’s a great night for all people of Ukraine because we have undisputed heavyweight world champion and lightweight world champion, it’s amazing.”
Berinchyk is now chasing all the big names at lightweight.
“Maybe Shakur Stevenson [the WBC champion],” Berinchyk said. “Maybe Keyshawn Davis, [Raymond] Muratalla, I don’t know. I don’t give a fuck.
“Now we want to rest because we’ve had a very hard camp. We want to rest, go home and see kids, wives and friends.”
Berinchyk’s awkward angles made for a difficult fight for Navarrete, who is better suited to more stationary boxers.
“I want to congratulate Denys,” he said. “I came to this division and I knew it would be difficult for me and it was difficult. Denys moves around a lot. Am I happy with the result? Absolutely not, but I take this as a learning opportunity. I have a lot to improve on, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.
“I think I took his punches pretty well, so that actually gives me the confidence moving forwards if I continue to improve. I think I can make noise here at 135lbs.
“I’m going to continue to improve. I know I can get better. You don’t have to be a genius to know I need to improve my technique. Denys came in here and he was a better technician than me. That’s no secret. He used it to his advantage and I can’t lie about that. I need to continue to improve.”
But ESPN commentator Tim Bradley offered this assessment: “That was the sloppiest championship fight I’ve seen in my life, but Navarrete met his match in terms of awkwardness.
“That dude [Berinchyk] was just as awkward if not more awkward than Navarrete but he was more technically sound in a sense to where he was like a situational type of fighter.
“He had a fix for everything Navarrete did and he caught him when he was out of position a lot of the times… He would stay close and smother Navarrete’s work. So big ups to Berinchyk and his team. They fought a phenomenal fight.
“I thought they intertwined all the styles that gives Navarrete issues even with his footwork, which I thought was pretty on point.”
