Vasily Lomachenko - Anthony Kroll

It was originally planned that on April 12, 2019, the world champion in WBA Super , WBO and The Ring magazine Vasily Lomachenko will hold a unifying fight against IBF world champion Richard Commie (28-2), who won the title in his previous match on February 2, 2019 , against the Russian Isa Chinaev . However, during a duel with Chinaev, Commi injured a ligament on his right hand and as a result could not box with Lomachenko in April ^[1] . After that, British boxer Anthony Kroll , who at that time was a mandatory challenger for the WBA ^[2], was considered the next rival of Vasily Lomachenko.

Before the fight with Lomachenko, Kroll spent 43 fights - 34 won, 6 lost and three fights ended in a draw. On July 18, 2015, WBA World Champion Darleys Perez fought with challenger Anthony Krolla, which ended in a draw. However, in the rematch that took place in November of that year, Kroll knocked out Perez in the 5th round and became the WBA champion. September 24, 2016 Kroll lost by points to Venezuelan Jorge Linares ^{[comm 1]} and lost his league title. On March 25, 2017, a rematch took place between Linares and Kroll, which ended in the same way as the first fight. Then Kroll held two rating fights and on November 11, 2018 he went out to fight for the status of a mandatory challenger for the WBA world title against the Indonesian . The Kroll-Jordan match lasted all 12 rounds allotted to it and ended with the Krolls victory by unanimous referee’s decision ^{[2] [3]} .

On February 20, 2019, Eddie Hearn, promoter Anthony Krolls, tweeted that the Krolly and Lomachenko teams had agreed and the fight will take place on April 12, 2019 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles ( USA ) ^[4] . According to promoter Vasyl Lomachenko Bob Arum , a Ukrainian could have a duel with other rivals, who were “more interesting and presentable than Kroll.” However, if Lomachenko had a duel against another opponent, then the WBA would have stripped him of his title ^[2] .

Initially, it was planned that the official weigh-in of the boxers before the fight will be held on April 11 at the Staples Center sports complex. However, because of the memorial services before the funeral of rapper Nipsey Hussle , which were supposed to take place there, the weigh-in took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center ^[5] . At the weigh-in, the champion weighed 60.963 kg, and his counterpart weighed 61.144 kg ^[6] .

From the very beginning of the fight, Kroll tried to box “on the move” and keep the champion at a long distance convenient for himself. Lomachenko spent most of the first round in intelligence, but less than a minute before the end of the round, he was able to get several times from his left hand into the Krolls jaw. In the second round, due to his speed, Lomachenko completely seized the initiative in the ring and began to dominate Kroll, who could not adapt to this style of warfare.

In the third round, the Ukrainian continued to dominate, less than a minute after the start of the Kroll round, he launched a three-hit combination in the head. After that, Kroll tried to maneuver around the ring, but constantly missed the right jab (direct hit) from Lomachenko. Half a minute before the end of this round, Lomachenko pinched his opponent at the ropes and struck several unrequited multi-hit combinations. 11 seconds before the end of the round, Jack Reiss, the referee of the fight, intervened and began the countdown of the “standing” knockdown.

In the fourth round, the situation did not change - Kroll continued to box “on the move”, and Lomachenko continuously threw punches. 52 seconds after the start of the round, Lomachenko struck an accented hook (side impact) from his right hand and Kroll fell onto the floor of the ring. Jack Reiss stopped the fight, and the victory was awarded by knockout to Vasily Lomachenko.

A huge blow to my ego. People spent a lot of time on me at the training camp. But I didn’t show anything. But he is really good. Fair? He is much better than I expected.

- the words of Anthony Krolla after the fight with Lomachenko ^[8]

According to Compubox's computerized strike counting system, for a Lomachenko fight, release 249 hits (112 hits were issued with the right hand and 137 were released with the left hand) and 72 of them hit the target (14 hits with the right hand and 58 with the left), and Kroll fired 96 strokes (45 direct strikes and 51 power strikes), 12 of which were accurate (5 direct strikes and 7 power strikes) ^[10] .

  Commentary: Undercard - preliminary boxing fights before the main fight of the evening.

Shortly after the end of the fight, a version appeared that Lomachenko, having knocked out Kroll, broke his arm ^[12] . However, the manager of the Ukrainian Egis Klimas said that Lomachenko did not break his arm, but dislocated his hand and it would take him three weeks to recover ^[13] .

After the defeat of Kroll, he said that the fight against Lomachenko was one of the last in his professional career ^[12] . On July 20, 2019, it was officially announced that Vasily Lomachenko will hold his next fight with Briton Luke Campbell (20-2). In this fight, in addition to the WBA Super, WBO and The Ring championship titles owned by Vasily Lomachenko, the vacant WBC world title will be played ^[14] .

• Goryunov A. Sanochki for Lomachenko // vRINGe.com. - 2019 .-- April 11.
• Osipov S. Do not linger at work // vRINGe.com. - 2019 .-- April 15.