Vasyl Lomachenko vs Anthony Crolla fight result: Ukrainian wins by knockout in fourth round of lopsided contest

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Vasyl Lomachenko vs Anthony Crolla preview weigh in

Vasyl Lomachenko defended his WBA and WBO lightweight belts on Friday night with a violent fourth-round stoppage of Britain’s Anthony Crolla.

Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) brutalized the mandatory challenger for his WBA belt throughout their fight, nearly ending it late in the third round when the Ukrainian star knocked Crolla into the ropes.

Referee Jack Reiss allowed the fight to continue, and Lomachenko finished after the break with a right hand that dropped Crolla face-first onto the canvas with a broken nose.

Lomachenko showed the folly of this matchup by thoroughly outclassing Crolla (34-7-3), a tough but overmatched contender. Lomachenko had hoped to take on Richard Commey in a three-belt unification fight, but Commey’s injured hand forced Lomachenko’s promoters to make this fight.

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Undercard results

Gilberto Ramirez def. Tommy Karpency via TKO (corner stoppage)

Arnold Barboza Jr. def. Mike Alvarado via KO

Alexander Besputin def. Alfredo Blanco via decsion

Janibek Alimkhanuly def. Cristian Olivas via decision

Guido Vianello def. Lawrence Gabriel via KO

Ruben Rodriguez def. Ramel Snegur via decision

[13 April 2019 03:58 · Tom Kershaw]

There's just one fight to go before the main event as Gilberto Ramirez, the WBO super-middleweight champion, moves up to test the waters at 175lbs against Tommy Karpency.

[13 April 2019 04:06 · Tom Kershaw]

[13 April 2019 04:07 · Tom Kershaw]

Anthony Crolla is a 1/100 underdog in this bout. Is there anything at all he can possibly do to disturb the consensus best fighter in the world?

[13 April 2019 04:16 · Tom Kershaw]

After a long delay, we're finally about to get down to business. Ramirez and Karpency are in the ring and it's time to throw down.

[13 April 2019 04:21 · Tom Kershaw]

And the opening bell rings!

[13 April 2019 04:25 · Tom Kershaw]

Round 1: Ramirez 1-0 Karpency

A dominant start for Ramirez who, despite moving up a division, has a pronounced size advantage and after taking a minute to scope his opponent begins to pepper Karpency's eye with the jab and wings a pair of hooks into the ribcage. Not much coming back from Karpency.

[13 April 2019 04:30 · Tom Kershaw]

Round 2: Ramirez 2-0 Karpency

An increasingly ragged round for Karpency who takes a number of clean shots and looks momentarily shaken. He attempts to respond with wild shots but they're only beating up clean air. There's a huge gap in class between the pair and it feels like just a matter of time until Ramirez secures the stoppage.

[13 April 2019 04:30 · Tom Kershaw]

[13 April 2019 04:34 · Tom Kershaw]

Round 3: Ramirez 3-0 Karpency

This is an ugly one-sided beatdown by this point, and we're only three rounds in. Ramirez is bigger, fresher, and fitter and his southpaw left hands are breaking clean through Karpency's guard, whose eyes are looking puffy while blood seeps from his forehead.

[13 April 2019 04:39 · Tom Kershaw]

Gilberto Ramirez wins by TKO!

At the end of the fourth, the referee heads to the corner to ask if Karpency is okay, his father, who is his trainer, pulls him out of the fight.

The crowd are booing but it was clearly the right decision. He never showed anything that hinted he may have a chance in this mismatch, and there was only one inevitable end.