Three division and unified lightweight champion Vasily Lomachenko performed to the expectations of the over 10,000 boxing fans that thronged the Staples Center to watch the mandatory defence of his WBA lightweight title fight with Anthony Crolla.
Lomachenko, the heavy favourite to win this encounter did not disappoint as the Ukrainian was as dominant as ever in crushing Crolla via a round 4 TKO to retain the WBA strap.
Lomachenko initially did not want to take the mandatory fight with Crolla because TOP RANK had reached a certain agreement to stage the April 12 fight as a unification of the winner of the vacant IBF lightweight title between Richard Commey and Isa Chaniev.
Commey won the fight in a round 2 crushing of Chaniev but sustained an injury in the event. He Therefore could not take the Lomachenko fight which forced Bob Arum’s TOP RANK to take the Crolla fight.
Lomachenko 31, (13-1, 10KOs) started round one in a very symptomatic aggression as always looking to pick his spots to open his punches. Eventually it was a good exchange in the round with both boxers landing good body punches but Lomachenko was the better boxer.
Crolla 32, (34-7-3, 13 KOs) barely threw a punch whilst he kept backtracking on the ropes to catch Lomachenko on the counter but with a combination of good foot works and sweat swift fast moving hands, Lomachenko dished a left uppercut, followed with a right jab to the head of Crolla.
A combination of flurried punches in the third round from Loma to the body and head of Crolla announced the Ukrainian’s intentions of closing the fight early.
Another right jab followed which rocked the head of Crolla to the ropes. Now all Crolla could do was to hold his defence whilst Lomachenko kept loading him with punches.
Referee Jack Reiss quickly rushed in to stop the fight momentarily, and the ropes had already saved Crolla who was upstanding but Reiss had recorded it as a knockdown and counted Crolla.
Meanwhile Lomachenko was jubilating thinking Jack Reiss had waved the fight off in his favour.
The ring was cleared and fight resumed, but just in a short while the bell rang out to end the round– Crolla had been saved from a possible round three knockout.
The referee called the boxers into the ring at the sound of the bell for round 4.
Lomachenko pointed to Crolla across the ring and asked if he was good. Hostilities began and the Ukrainian continued his pounding of Crolla.
Lomachenko landed his punches with speed to the body and head of Crolla forcing the Brit to the ropes again,
A straight left to the face by the Ukrainian, followed by a vicious right hook to the head of Crolla crumbled him to the canvas with his face down, and this time round referee Jack Reiss counted and waved the fight off.
Lomachenko had this to say in his post fight interview
“My shoulder wasn’t 100 percent in my last fight (Linares), but tonight I felt great. I have a great doctor Neal El Attrache, and I want to thank him for all he did,” Lomachenko said. “The crowd in Los Angeles was great. I always wanted a Staples Center fight. This lived up to my expectations.”
Lomachenko knows his weight stretch and believe that 135lbs is the highest he could go particularly as he is fighting people bigger than his size and reckons that 130lbs is his comfortable weight class. He quickly added that he wants to unify the lightweight titles and become the undisputed champion of the division.
“I want to fight with Mikey Garcia, but we’ll see. I don’t know,” Lomachenko said. “I stay at 135 as long as it’s possible, and I want to unify all the titles.”
“I don’t want to go out like that. I’ve never said that I want to stay in boxing too long, but I know that I haven’t got long left,” Crolla said. “Hopefully Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn does something in Manchester later in the year and I can go again.”
Crolla himself had come from a terrible accident resulting in head surgery when he tried to help a neighbour from being robbed some years back which has extricated him from going for road jogging and resorted only to gym training and swimming.