Anthony Crolla vs Vasyl Lomachenko is on
Crolla vs Lomachenko fight agreed for April 12 world title bout confirms Eddie Hearn
Manchester ace Anthony Crolla (34-6-3, 13KO) has put himself in position to challenge Vasiliy Lomachenko (12-1, 9KO) for his old world title after suffering two back-to-back losses against Jorge Linares in 2016 and 2017.
The bout will take place in Los Angeles’ Staples Center for Loma's WBA 'Super' and WBO lightweight world titles.
'Million Dollar' Crolla, 32, bounced back from that brace of defeats to reel off three unanimous decision points wins against high-level opposition, including three-weight world champion Ricky Burns.
Lomachenko will be his toughest fight to date, who recently stepped up in weight to take on Crolla's conqueror Linares and managed to stop him in the 10th round to pick up the WBA world lightweight title.
Ukrainian Vasiliy, known as 'Hi-Tech', is currently a unified lightweight world champion, having held the WBA 'Super', WBO and Ring magazine titles since 2018, and was previously a WBO featherweight and super-lightweight champion between 2014 and 2018. The record-breaker holds several all-time accolades for winning major world championships in the fewest professional fights: he won a world title in his third professional fight, became a two-weight champion in just his seventh contest, and a three-weight champ in his 12th bout.
His amateur achievements are unrivalled, having won a whopping 396 fights from 397! A double Olympic champion, his sole amateur career defeat was in the World Championships in Chicago in 2007 to fellow southpaw and Russian favorite Albert Selimov, to whom he lost 11–16.
As a pro, he has also only experienced one career defeat in his second fight to an overweight Orlando Salido for the WBO world featherweight title in an attempt to make history by winning a world championship in his second fight and breaking Saensak Muangsurin's record, who won a super-lightweight world title in his third pro fight in 1975. Salido didn't make the weight limit, coming in over 2lbs over, and rehydrated four weight classes up to welterweight on fight night. Loma lost on a split decision despite outlanding Salido.
Crolla, trained by Joe Gallagher, received a barrage of criticism on social media following the announcement of the fight despite holding the mandatory position with the WBA and calling for the fight in November last year.