By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Crolla says he’d like to face WBA World lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko in the UK. Crolla (33-6-3, 13 KOs) has won his last two fights against Edson Ramire and Ricky Burns since losing twice to Jorge Linares.
Crolla, 31, feels that he’s ready for another world title shot, and he’d like to fight Lomachenko if possible. Given that Crolla is promoted by Eddie Hearn, it’s quite possible that he might get lucky and get a fight against Lomachenko, but it’s doubtful that the fight would take place in the UK.
Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank will likely insist that the fight take place in the U.S. It probably doesn’t matter. Lomachenko has been stopping everyone he’s faced in his last 8 fights since 2015. I can’t imagine Crolla being able to go the distance with him to get to the scorecards.
Even if Crolla does make it the distance, he’s likely going to be so beaten up that the judges won’t be able to mess up the results like they arguably did in his fight with Ricky Burns last October. A lot of boxing fans thought Burns deserved to have his hand raised after that fight.
“I’d love to try my luck against him. He has openly said he wants to fight in the UK so, in that sense, you’d say it would either be against myself or Campbell,” Crolla said to skysports.com. “If he wants to fight in England, I could be the man. I know there’s no chance of it in USA.”
Luke Campbell will be fighting Yvan Mendy next a WBC lightweight title eliminator.
It’s not likely that Campbell will pass up that fight, because he has unfinished business to take care of with Mendy after losing to him by a 12 round split decision in December 2015. Campbell stands a better chance of beating Mendy and then Mikey Garcia than he does against Lomachenko. It’s a better path for Campbell than to take the quick payday against Lomachenko and end up as food.
If Crolla wants to fight Lomachenko and risk getting forced to quit, then that’s on him. Unfortunately, Crolla doesn’t have a lot of options though. Lomachenko is expected to fight WBO lightweight champion Ray Beltran next on August 25, and Mikey Garcia is facing IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. By the end of the summer, Mikey Garcia and Lomachenko will hold all of the lightweight titles between them. As such, if Crolla wants to fight for a belt at 135, he’s going to need to face one of those two. As the saying goes, Crolla will need to ‘pick his poison.’
It’s bad that Linares, a fighter that twice beat Crolla, was stopped in the 10th round by Lomachenko last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. If anything, Crolla should face Linares again and prove that he can beat him rather than graduating with 2 losses and being given a title shot against Lomachenko. I’m just saying.