Now you see him, now you don’t.

On August 5, 2017, Vasiliy Lomachenko dominated Miguel Marriaga en route to a seventh-round stoppage and retained his WBO junior lightweight title at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

At the time of the fight, Lomachenko was a two-weight world titleholder and a pound for pound entrant. In June 2016, the Ukrainian wizard electrified the boxing world with a brutal fifth-round knockout of Roman Martinez to win the 130-pound belt. For an encore, “Hi-Tech” forced two corner retirements in title defenses against Nicholas Walters (TKO 7) and Jason Sosa (TKO 9).

Marriaga would be the third.

The Colombian challenger had a 25-2 (21 KOs) record and his only losses had come on points to Walters and Oscar Valdez in world title fights. But as had been the case with almost every Lomachenko opponent before him, Marriaga struggled to land a blow of consequence.

After dominating the opening two rounds, Lomachenko decked his opponent with a left hand in the third. When Marriaga got to his feet, the champion remained in the neutral corner and beckoned his bewildered foe to come at him. The challenger did so – reluctantly.

The fight was no contest and was becoming hard to watch by the seventh. Lomachenko scored multi-punch salvos at will, whereas Marriaga was reticent to let his hands go for fear of being punished further. Another knockdown late in that round was probably the deciding factor in the corner saving their man for another day.