Vasiliy Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) successfully defended his unified lightweight titles on Saturday night with a brutal fourth-round knockout of Anthony Crolla (34-7-3, 13 KOs) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Crolla was confident of an upset win, but Lomachenko was too quick and too sharp for the Englishman, scoring a called knockdown in the third when referee Pat Russell ruled that the ropes kept Crolla from going down.
In the fourth round, Lomachenko connected with a crushing right hook that sent Crolla face-first to the canvas, knocking him out.
After the fight, Lomachenko expressed a desire to face Mikey Garcia next.
“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 titles.”
In the co-feature, Gilberto Ramirez (40-0, 26 KOs) made his debut at light heavyweight with a TKO win over Tommy Karpency (29-7-1, 18 KOs) in four rounds.
Zurdo punished Karpency to the
“I feel more comfortable at 175 pounds than 168,” Ramirez said. “I’m looking for all the champions at 175. I want to be a pound-for-pound fighter.
“I struggled making 168 for a very long time. We’ll see what’s next, but my body felt great at 175. My new head trainer, Julian Chua, did an excellent job preparing me for this fight. Karpency was a tough guy.”
