ESPN 5/12: Vasyl Lomachenko vs Jorge Linares (WBA Lightweight Championship)

[patscorpio]

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has certainly had his well-chronicled battles with Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions and HBO Sports boss Peter Nelson, but they were able to put their considerable differences aside, at least momentarily, and get one of the premier fights in boxing finalized: lightweight world champion Jorge Linares against junior lightweight titlist and pound-for-pound king Vasyl Lomachenko.

The fight, which will take place on May 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York and headline a Top Rank ESPN card (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 8 p.m. ET), was made official on Wednesday.


"This is the fight that boxing fans wanted. This will be a super fight between two of the best champions," Linares said. "Not only will I demonstrate why I'm the best lightweight in the world, but also that I'm one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. I have the speed, skill and power to win this battle. This May 12, Vasiliy Lomachenko will bow down to 'King' Jorge."

Venezuela's Linares (44-3, 27 KOs), 32, who fights out of Las Vegas, is a three-division world titleholder and will be making his the fourth defense of his second title reign at lightweight. He will be seeking his 14th win in a row against Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs), a 30-year southpaw who is moving up in weight and can win a title in a third weight class in the fewest number of bouts in history.

"We are very excited about the fight. It should be a great one," said Lomachenko, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine who has made his past four consecutive opponents quit. "Fans from around the world have been waiting for Jorge and me to fight. We appreciate the work Top Rank did to put this fight together, and thanks to the television networks that helped make it happen. I am looking forward to May 12 in New York to make my debut in the big arena at Madison Square Garden."

Arum, aligned with ESPN, wanted to make the fight and Golden Boy was open to it but it nearly fell apart over the date because Golden Boy has another event on the same night on HBO, when Sadam Ali defends his junior middleweight belt for the first time against former titlist Liam Smith.

That put Golden Boy in a tough spot with Nelson, who counts Golden Boy as his network's chief fight supplier, and he had also bought Linares' past two fights.

But when Top Rank and ESPN agreed to move the telecast start time back to 8 p.m., it meant that it would not conflict with HBO's telecast that night, due to start at 10 p.m. ET/PT, and that worked for everyone involved.

"This fight marks a significant step forward for one of the greatest fighters we've seen, Vasiliy Lomachenko, as he goes up in weight once again to fight the best lightweight in the world, Jorge Linares," said Arum, who then doled out a rare compliment to Nelson, whom he has attacked regularly for months. "I want to thank everyone involved for making this happen, particularly Peter Nelson of HBO and the Golden Boy team, whose cooperation made this fight possible. This demonstrates that promoters and networks, when they work together for the good of everyone, can accomplish so very much."

De La Hoya said that by making the fight he was sticking to his long-running mantra of trying to make the best fights regardless of the promotional or television entities involved.

"Jorge has established himself as the world's best lightweight by taking on any and all comers over his storied career, but a win on May 12 would put him on an entirely different level," De La Hoya said. "We fully understand that Lomachenko is universally seen as the best fighter on the planet, but he's never faced anyone with the size and skill of Jorge. As this fight makes clear, I'm 100 percent committed to giving fans the fights they want to see and will work with anyone to accomplish that goal."

 

[patscorpio]

as much as i think lomachenko is not all that great...linares is a little up and down with his performances... i do think he matches up with lomachenko well skill for skill..the only sure thing is linares cuts easy as fukk and if lomachenko wins it would be most likely by a cut stoppage

 

[Knicksman20]

Linares has always been my favorite “struggle” champ. I hope he beats Loma. His length (pause) hand speed, foot speed, & power should give Loma problems. And he’s been active & in his physical prime. I said this before & will say it again but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Loma gets tagged more this fight than any of his others.

@Yuzo

Bless us with some gifs & what each fighter might or needs to do

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

Battle of the Twinks!

 

[malbaker86]

Loma in a routine win

 

[R=G]

Hopefully this is competitive

 

[reservoirdogs]

I'm picking Loma but I'm curious

There's the "how far Loma can go up" factor. He wasn't the biggest guy in 130 either and his punching power wasn't that big in 130 either (average sized 130er I'd say), he hasn't scored any big KO aside the Martinez one. His power was enough to keep opponents on the backfoot with constant feinting so he could get into his flow and box on the front foot what he does the best but how long this will be the case? How long until someone who's just too big gonna simply walk right through his shots w/o giving any fukks about his feinting and not letting him gain forward momentum? I doubt it's gonna be Linares though, his chin is shaky he won't risk walking Loma down I think...

then another thing also connected to size... where we will reach a point where opponents just gonna be too long and tall for Loma? Loma has a short af reach, he makes up for it with everything else but how much longer...? When we will reach a point when he meets an opponent with a worldclass jab who just keeps him on the outside, not letting him getting into his punching range? I think Linares has a good jab and he has like 10cm (4inch) on Loma in reach so he can make things interesting on paper...

I think Loma won't look as brilliant as he did in 130 but after maybe some early lost rounds he will eventually get into his groove and outpoint Linares. His showing on this fight will tell some things about us whether Loma should purchase those Mikey and Pacquiao fights or not. If he loses or struggle hard with winning he may should stay away from them (for now...), but if he wins confidently he can move toward them.

 

[krackdagawd]

Pretty boys with another W

 

[The axe murderer]

Lets get it

 

[Cole Cash]

Linearas was one of the most hyped champs ever from 07-09 they acted like he was really gonna be a p4p great knocking out nobodies in tokyo until that mexican came and split his wig.

Linearas sadly, he chin dont or wont hold up against Loma, im going with eurocac by stoppage.

 

[Thatrogueassdiaz]

Going with Loma by TKO but I will be rooting for Linares. Linares, like @patscorpio said, has been inconsistent lately. Not only that, but he's a front runner. It'll take him 12 rounds to beat Lomanchenko.

 

[The axe murderer]

 

[The axe murderer]

 

[patscorpio]

Weights: Vasyl Lomachenko 134.6, Jorge Linares 134.6

The weights are in, as Jorge Linares and Vasyl Lomachenko are ready for battle on Saturday night at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Lomachenko, who captured world titles at featherweight and super featherweight, moves up to 135-pounds in his pursuit to capture a third divisional belt as he challenge Linares for his WBA lightweight title.

Lomachenko weighed in at 134.6-pounds, while Linares was also 134.6-pounds.

The stacked undercard features welterweight contender Carlos ‘Caballo Bronco’ Adames (13-0, 11 KOs) in his Top Rank debut in a 10-round, ESPN-televised co-feature against Alejandro Barrera (27-4, 17 KOs); Irish sensation Michael Conlan (6-0, 5 KOs) will see action in an eight-round featherweight contest against Ibon Larrinaga (10-1, 2 KOs); Jamel Herring (16-2, 9 KOs) takes on the durable Juan Pablo Sanchez (29-15, 14 KOs) in an eight-round lightweight bout; top lightweight prospect Teofimo Lopez (8-0, 6 KOs) faces veteran Vitor Freitas (13-1, 7 KOs) of Salvador, Brazil, in a scheduled eight-rounder; female boxing sensation Mikaela Mayer (4-0, 3 KOs) will face Baby Nansen (6-2-1, 0 KOs) of Auckland, New Zealand, in a six-round lightweight fight; and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Fazliddin ‘Fayzi' Gaibnazarov (3-0, 1 KO) returns in a scheduled eight-rounder against Jesus Silveyra (8-5-2, 3 KOs) of Monterrey, Mexico.

Linares vs. Lomachenko and Adames vs. Barrera will be televised live and exclusively at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, and undercard bouts will stream live on ESPN+, available on the ESPN App, beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.

 

[R=G]

The main event is like 11pmest?