Unified lightweight world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko knocked out mandatory challenger Anthony Crolla in the fourth round to retain his belts Friday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Lomachenko scored a knockdown in the final seconds of the third round and finished the job with a hard right hook to the head, sending Crolla face first to the canvas. The knockout came at 58 seconds of the fourth round.
The fight, which was the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card, marked Lomachenko’s second defense of the lightweight title he won in May 2018, when he stopped Jorge Linares by 10th-round TKO.
Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs), a three-division world champion who is No. 1 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings, has won 12 straight fights since dropping a split decision to Orlando Salido in his second professional fight.
Crolla (34-7-3, 13 KOs), who held the WBA lightweight belt from 2015-16, had his three-fight winning streak snapped.