LightWeight

Teofimo Lopez will reportedly face Vasiliy Lomachenko in a lightweight championship unification bout after all.

According to Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, the fight will take place on a Saturday after Oct. 3—which is the date it was scheduled for—inside MGM Grand in Las Vegas after Lopez agreed to terms with Top Rank.

Coppinger explained Lopez's manager, David McWater, negotiated with Top Rank "for weeks" when the fighter did not accept an initial offer of $1.25 million. He could make $1.5 million now after Lomachenko agreed to a reduced purse of $3.25 million from $3.5 million.

This is a highly anticipated bout, especially after an extended break because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WBN noted Lomachenko has the WBC Franchise, WBA Super and WBO lightweight crowns, while Lopez holds the IBF lightweight crown.

It also shared comments Top Rank CEO Bob Arum made on The AK & Barak Show on SiriusXM explaining the lack of fans amid the pandemic changed the equation for the purses:

"Teofimo is a great guy and we will continue to promote his fights. But I think Teofimo is beginning to realize that his aspirations as far as how much his purse should be was based on selling tickets to an arena, to as much as two and a half or three million dollars. Plus the closed-circuit – another million dollars.

"Those revenue streams are gone. But that doesn't mean that he shouldn't get a big purse. And he is getting a big purse. But you obviously can't pay the man what you would be able to otherwise if you had a gate and closed-circuit revenue. It's as simple as that."

Lopez is 15-0 (12 KOs), and his last fight was a technical knockout win over Richard Commey in December.

Lomachenko is 14-1 (10 KOs), and his last fight was a unanimous-decision victory over Luke Campbell in August 2019.

Vasyl Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KOs) is back in the ring on Friday night, putting his WBA and WBO world lightweight titles on the line against England's Anthony "Million Dollar" Crolla (34-6-3, 13 KOs) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. 

Lomachenko is peerless at 135 pounds, and perhaps in the sport of boxing as a whole. The Boxing Writers Association of America, Ring and ESPN all have him as their top pound-for-pound fighter.

The 31-year-old is already a three-division world champion and has thoroughly dominated everyone he's faced, save for a controversial loss to an over-the-limit Orlando Salido in his second professional bout. 

Few believe Crolla, the WBA mandatory challenger, can pull off what would be a massive upset. The Manchester native is an excellent boxer in his own right, but he's lost bouts to guys with far less talent than the Ukrainian. That includes back-to-back defeats against Jorge Linares, a boxer Lomachenko stopped with a 10th-round liver shot just last year. 

Lomachenko is looking to burnish his sterling credentials, while Crolla is aiming to make a miracle happen. Here's how to watch:

              

Lomachenko vs. Crolla Fight Info

When: Friday, April 12 at 11 p.m. ET

Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles

TV: Sky Sports (UK only)

Live Stream: ESPN+, Sky Go (UK only)

Odds: Lomachenko -5000 (bet $5,000 to win $100), Crolla +2200 (bet $100 to win $2,200)

            

We last saw Lomachenko in the ring in December, when he put on a clinic against a wildly out-of-his-depth Jose Pedraza. The southpaw champion cruised to a wide unanimous decision over the Puerto Rican.

The 11th round was particularly brutal, as the champion scored two knockdowns and landed 42 power punches, per ESPN:

Lomachenko landed *42 power punches* in Round 11 🥊 pic.twitter.com/SMw1bFsBlr

— ESPN (@espn) December 9, 2018

Footwork, timing, accuracy and power: Lomachenko has it all. While he hasn't had a ton of rest since fighting Pedraza, there's no reason to believe he won't be firing on all cylinders on Friday.

Even if the bout goes down in an entirely predictable way, Top Rank's Bob Arum is at least promising something out of the ordinary during Loma's ring walk:

Wait until you see the robe Lomachenko wears when he walks to the ring to face Anthony Crolla Friday night at STAPLES Center on ESPN+ (11 p.m. est/8 pst). There has never been anything comparable in the history of boxing

— Bob Arum (@BobArum) April 8, 2019

Crolla isn't the flashiest fighter, but he's a great competitor. Despite the overwhelming odds against him, expect the Mancunian to leave it all in the ring on Friday. 

"I'm not the most talented, but what I don't have in talent, I make up for in hard work," Crolla said, per ESPN.com's Nick Parkinson. "I'm certainly one of those fighters who work for their success. You also need a bit of luck."

The 32-year-old has worked his way up to this moment since successive decision losses to Linares. He has won three in a row, defeating Ricky Burns, Edson Ramirez and Daud Yordan in that order.

It's a solid string of wins, but none of them are anywhere near the level of the Ukrainian. Crolla doesn't possess the power to deter Lomachenko from getting in close. He is going to have to fight a perfect fight and probably get lucky in the process if he is to pull out a win. 

Assuming Lomachenko wins, it will be interesting to see what he does next. There aren't a ton of big names at 135 pounds.

One intriguing possibility, though, is Mikey Garcia. He held the IBF and WBC titles at lightweight before making a two-division leap to take on welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in March, suffering his first career loss in lopsided fashion.

Garcia's pay-per-view was a big risk and turned out to be a huge disappointment in the end. If he wants to come back down to lightweight, he would make for an interesting opponent for Lomachenko.

         

Odds courtesy of Oddschecker and updated as of Wednesday, April 10 at 7 a.m. ET