By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum must be smiling from ear to ear today at the news that last weekend’s lightweight world title fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Jorge Linares averaged a whopping 1.439 million viewers with a peak of 1.75 million on ESPN in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.
By Jim Dower: Trainer Robert Garcia says he thinks that the unification between his brother WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia and WBA champion Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) won’t happen because of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who will offer too little money for the fight.
By Chris Williams: Mikey Garcia saw weakness in Vasyl Lomachenko last Saturday night in his fight with Jorge Linares, and he’s now convinced that he’ll knock him out when they face each other. Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) came into his fight with WBA lightweight champion Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) with an aura of invincibility, but he looked very human throughout the fight, getting knocked down hard in the 6th, and taking countless hard head blows that bruised his face up.
By Chris Williams: For only the second time in his career, Vasyl Lomachenko looked vulnerable last Saturday night in beating Jorge Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) by a 10th round knockout to claim the WBA World lightweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.
By Chris Williams: Bob Arum doesn’t look like he wants to wait any longer before testing Vasyl Lomachenko’s marketing appeal, as he says interested in making his next fight on August 25 against WBO lightweight champion Ray Beltran (35-7-1, 21 KOs) on pay-per-view.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says Floyd Mayweather Jr. called his company and spoke Todd duBeof recently about wanting to put together a fight between his fighter super featherweight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Vasyl Lomachenko.
By Jim Dower: Former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik is picking WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia to defeat Vasyl Lomachenko if the two of them face each other in a unification fight this year.
By Chris Williams: Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank says newly crowned WBA World lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko will likely face WBO lightweight champion Ray Beltran next rather than WBC champion Mikey Garcia.
By Jeff Aranow: Vasyl Lomachenko did what many expected him to do in beating Jorge Linares to rip away his WBA World lightweight title on Saturday night in front of a large crowd of 10,429 fans at Madison Square Garden in New York to become the only fighter in history of the sport to win 3 division world titles in just 12 fights.
By Chris Williams: Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) survived a 6th round knockdown to come back to stop WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) in the 10th round to become a three-division world champion at Madison Square Garden in New York.