the final bell. Lomachenko began to hurt Russell Jr. more in the later rounds with power shots. Russell Jr. landed only 10% of his punches thrown, with a lot of combinations being missed or blocked. Lomachenko landed 183 of 597 punches thrown (31%) and Russell Jr. landed 83 of his 806 thrown. With this victory, Lomachenko joined Saensak Muangsurin as the only other boxer to have won a world title in the quickest amount of time since turning professional, accomplishing the feat in just his third professional bout. The fight averaged 578,000 viewers. Lomachenko vs. Piriyapinyo Lomachenko made his first title defense against mandatory challenger Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo of Thailand. This fight took place on the undercard of the Pacquiao vs. Algieri on HBO PPV bout on November 22, 2014 at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort in Macao. Although Piritapinyo's record of 52 wins and 1 loss made the fight sound challenging for Lomachenko, the only time he stepped up in his 11-year career was in 2012 against Chris John, which he lost via unanimous decision. Lomachenko handled his opponent easily, hurting him a few times and scoring a knockdown at the end of the fourth round. In the seventh round, Lomachenko stopped using his left hand; it was later confirmed that he injured that hand. Lomachenko won a unanimous decision with the scores of 120–107 on all three of the judges' scorecards. Lomachenko landed 368 of 1006 punches thrown (37%) and Piriyapinyo landed 94 of his 501 thrown (19%). Lomachenko vs. Rodríguez It was announced prior to Lomachenko's mandatory fight against Piriyapinyo that the winner would next fight 28 year old Puerto Rican boxer Gamalier Rodríguez. Rodriguez earned the title shot after knocking out Martin Cardona. The fight was announced to take place on 2 May 2015 on the under-card of Mayweather-Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Prior to the fight, Rodriguez was on a 17-fight winning streak dating back to 2010, where the fight resulted in a first round technical draw. Top Rank announced before the fight that Lomachenko had signed a five-year contract extension. On fight night, Lomachenko retained his WBO title against Rodriguez via a ninth-round KO victory. Lomachenko's speed and precision was too much for Rodriguez, who took a knee twice in the fight, once in the seventh and again in the ninth, which ended the bout. He was also docked a point by referee