By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (32-0, 13 KOs) remained undefeated with an easy 8th round knockout win against 35-year-old fringe contender Orlando Cruz (25-5-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night in winning his fourth consecutive title defense at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales. This was a dreadful mismatch of the first order.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (31-0, 12 KOs) successfully weighed in on Friday in coming in at 134.8 pounds for his voluntary title defense against #13 WBO Orlando Cruz (25-4-1, 13 KOs) this Saturday night on November 26 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
WBO Lightweight Champion Terry Flanagan (31-0 12 KOs) will make the fourth defence of his World title against Puerto Rico’s former World title challenger Orlando Cruz (25-4-1 13 KOs) on Frank Warren’s huge November 26th Motorpoint Arena Cardiff show, live and exclusive on BoxNation.
By Scott Gilfoid: A unification fight between lightweight champions Terry Flanagan and Dejan Zlaticanin are in the works for October. Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza likes the fight. One problem that could potentially get in the way of the Flanagan-Zlaticanin fight taking place is unbeaten Felix Verdejo (22-0, 15 KOs) being named as the #1 WBO mandatory challenger for Flanagan.
Verdejo wants a title shot, and if the World Boxing Organization order the fight, then Flanagan would have to face the talented Puerto Rican fighter. Flanagan has been pretty much taking it easy as the WBO champion since winning it last year against Jose Zepeda.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (30-0, 12 KOs) will be defending his title tonight against 42-year-old Mzonke Fana (38-9, 16 KOs) at Cardiff’s Ice Palace. This will be the 27-year-old Flanagan’s third defense of his WBO strap that he won last year in his controversial fight against Jose Zepeda.
It’s unclear why Flanagan never gave Zepeda a rematch, as there was talk that he was going to due to suffering a dislocated left shoulder. It was kind of a cheap way of winning world title if you ask me.
By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten former two division world champion Mikey Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs) hasn’t fought in two years, but he’s already targeting WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (30-0, 12 KOs) to go after his scalp and take his WBO title from him before moving up to light welterweight. Garcia, 28, isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the World Boxing Organization at the moment, which could make it kind of tough on him to get a crack at Flanagan’s title unless a fight can be worked out between them anyway.
Garcia will be fighting next month against Elio Rojas (24-2, 14 KOs) on July 30 on the undercard of the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. That should be a very wasy fight for Garcia, as Rojas is not a major talent in the sport.
By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (30-0, 12 KOs) is interested in defending his WBO 135lb against newly crowned WBO super featherweight champion when/if he chooses to move up in weight to the lightweight division. Heck, I wouldn’t mind seeing Flanagan and Lomachenko fight each other. It would be a great fight if they could do it right now, not years from now.
Flanagan would have a four inch height advantage over the 5’5” Lomachenko, as well as a long reach and likely weight advantage. Even if Lomachenko put on a lot of weight, he would still be dwarfed by Flanagan in that fight. However, that doesn’t mean Flanagan would win. I think he would get easily out-boxed by Lomahenko.
WBO world lightweight champion Terry ‘Turbo’ Flanagan defends his belt against South African Mzonke Fana on July 9 at the Manchester Arena, but is aware that bragging rights in his hometown are still well and truly up for grabs.
By Scott Gilfoid: In a very disappointing bit of news, WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (30-0, 12, KOs) will be defending his title next month against 42-year-old former two-time IBF lightweight champion Mzonke Fana (38-9, 16 KOs) in the co-feature bout on the July 9 Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. While the Flanagan-Fana fight announcement has been mostly been greeted by positive reactions, I don’t see it as a good fight. Fana, #12 WBO, is no longer a major player in the lightweight division, and he’s been getting regularly as of late.
A fight between Flanagan and Fana would have made sense eight years ago when Fana was still in his prime, but the guy is no longer a top level fighter. Fana is heading towards journeyman with the way he’s getting beaten.
By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (31-4-3, 13 KOs) could wind up facing WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares (40-3, 27 KO) next rather than the knockout artist WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan. Crolla is coming off of a 7th round knockout win over Ismael Barroso (19-1-2, 18 KOs) last Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
For some reason, Crolla’s trainer Joe Gallagher doesn’t want the Crolla-Flanagan fight this year. Gallagher says Flanagan isn’t well known and it’s too early to make that fight. However, Flanagan is VERY well known, and it just seems like a dreadful match-up for Crolla. Linares, 30, is a decent champion, but he’s shown himself to be human in the past in knockout losses to Antonio DeMarco, Sergio Thompson and Juan Carlos Salgado.
Linares is one of those fighters that can either look really good or look horrible in coming apart at the seams in getting knocked out. Linares’ career has taken a recent upsurge in knockout wins over Kevin Mitchell and Ivan Cano.