Lomachenko-Crolla purse bid postponed again

A purse bid for the mandatory title fight has been pushed back as a deal appears near.

A deal may be near for a lightweight title fight between unified titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko and WBA mandatory challenger Anthony Crolla, as the purse bid has again been postponed, this time to Feb. 20. It was originally scheduled for Feb. 6, and this is the second postponement.

Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KO) is slated to fight April 12 on ESPN+ from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. He was previously expected to face new IBF titleholder Richard Commey, but Commey was injured in his Feb. 2 title win over Isa Chaniev, and won’t be cleared to fight by April.

That leaves Crolla (34-6-3, 13 KO) as the best option for the date, in part because it’s a fight that has to be taken care of at some point. Lomachenko, who holds the WBA and WBO titles, will be an enormous favorite against Crolla.

There was previous talk of Matchroom letting the fight go to purse bid, because they felt that with DAZN backing, they could have won the rights to the bout over Top Rank. But it looks like something has been worked out here, and we should probably get something official soon enough.