Anthony Crolla on being knocked out by Lomachenko: ‘It felt like being tasered’

Badlefthook.com

Back on April 12, Anthony Crolla came over to Los Angeles as the WBA mandatory challenger for Vasiliy Lomachenko. Little, quite frankly, was expected of Crolla that night, but Lomachenko produced a highlight reel KO in the fourth round.

Crolla sat down with BT Sport to discuss the KO shot, giving his account of the power of Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KO), comparing it to what he imagines being tasered feels like.

“I knew the moment I hit the floor — so the count would’ve been around two. At the count of two, I knew what shot he’d hit me with, how he’d set me up, but the frustrating thing was, I knew I was never gonna beat the 10 count,” Crolla said.

“One of my friends who was ringside, he said, ‘I saw your body sort of lock out.’ I’ve never been tasered but I can imagine it’s something like that. I remember being on the floor, I remember being embarrassed, thinking, ‘This doesn’t look good. I’m never gonna beat the count.’

“On the ref cam, you can sort of see I’m talking to him, and I’m going, ‘I’m fine,’ and I think he says something about just staying down there. I’m thinking, ‘I just want to get up,’ but I probably couldn’t have got up. Like I said, it felt like what I imagine it’s like to be tasered. He caught me with a great shot.

“Even before — he probably hit a bit harder than we expected, but it wasn’t to a point where you ever thought, ‘oh, he’ll knock me out with one shot.’ But the old saying, the shot you don’t see coming is the shot that puts you over, and that’s certainly what happened that night.”

So if you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to be knocked out by Vasiliy Lomachenko, there you have it from a good professional fighter who has held a world title in the past and did 24 full rounds with Jorge Linares a couple years ago. Doesn’t seem fun.

Immediately after the fight, the 32-year-old Crolla (34-7-3, 13 KO) expressed that he might have a comeback fight later this year, but that he expects his boxing career to end soon.

Lomachenko injured his right hand on the knockout blow, but says he’ll be back in September, and just yesterday sat down to discuss his thoughts on Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, and more.