Lomachenko stops Crolla in 4th, defends lightweight belts

Vasyl Lomachenko wanted a bigger challenge and a more prominent opponent than Anthony Crolla for this Hollywood showcase.

When he couldn't get one, the lightweight kingpin took it out on his overmatched foe.

Lomachenko defended his WBA and WBO 135-pound belts with a violent fourth-round stoppage of Britain's Crolla on Friday night, demonstrating his pound-for-pound excellence with another virtuosic display.

Vasiliy Lomachenko, right, from Ukraine, right, knocks down Anthony Crolla, from Britain, during the WBA and WBO lightweight title boxing bout Friday, April 12, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP PhotoDamian Dovarganes)

"For me it was very comfortable, because I worked with two hands," Lomachenko said. "By the second round, I knew it was going to be good for me."

Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) brutalized the mandatory challenger for his WBA belt throughout their brief fight, and the Ukrainian nearly ended it late in the third round when he knocked Crolla into the ropes.

Lomachenko started to celebrate by leaping on the ropes, but referee Jack Reiss allowed the fight to continue to the bell. Lomachenko shook it off and finished crisply after the break, ending it with a right hand that dropped Crolla face-first onto the canvas with an apparently broken nose.

Vasiliy Lomachenko, right, from Ukraine, right, faces Anthony Crolla, from Britain, during the WBA and WBO lightweight title boxing bout Friday, April 12, 2019, in Los Angeles. Lomachenko won the bout. (AP PhotoDamian Dovarganes)

"I thought it will be very hard for me, because his style is always in defense," said Lomachenko, still smiling despite a cut near his left eye from a fourth-round head butt. "I always need to find a key for his defense. After the second round, I understand him, and it is what it is."

Even when Lomachenko can't get an ideal opponent, he still puts on a show — and the raucous crowd of 10,101 at Staples Center enjoyed it.

While he waits for the promotional stars to align for a big-money showdown with Mikey Garcia, Lomachenko had hoped to take on Richard Commey in a three-belt unification fight in this matchup. Commey's injured hand forced Lomachenko's promoters to make this fight with Crolla, rather than surrender his WBA belt.

Lomachenko then showed why it was a bad idea for Crolla (34-7-3), whose toughness wasn't enough.

Although Crolla retreated and dodged Lomachenko's attacks from the opening minute onward, Lomachenko picked apart Crolla's defense with his peerless combination of athleticism and technique, working the body and head with equal aplomb.

Crolla couldn't escape Lomachenko's combinations on the ropes late in the third round, but made it to the bell at Reiss' discretion. Nothing got better in the fourth, and Lomachenko hurt Crolla before finishing him in dramatic fashion.

"I've been doing this for well over 50 years, and I've never seen anything like that guy," said Bob Arum, Lomachenko's Hall of Fame promoter. "He's almost breathtaking."

Lomachenko headlined at Staples Center for the first time in his brief professional career. The Ukrainian has developed a significant fan base in the boxing-savvy Los Angeles area, where he lives and trains.

"I feel at home here," Lomachenko said. "I feel like I'm in Ukraine here."

Lomachenko's profile has grown exponentially in recent years as he headlined at Madison Square Garden, in Macau and other Los Angeles-area venues before his step up to Staples. Lomachenko's next fight is likely to be even bigger, whether as a unification bout or a showdown with one of the other lightweight greats of this era.

"I want Mikey Garcia, (but) I want to unify titles," Lomachenko said. "That's my goal. I want historic fights."

In the co-main event, longtime super middleweight champion Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramírez remained unbeaten when his light heavyweight debut against Tommy Karpency was stopped by Karpency's corner before the fifth round.

Karpency got in the ring with a black eye, and his nose was damaged early by Ramírez, the rangy puncher who had just one previous stoppage victory since 2014. Ramírez appears determined to make a career at 175 pounds instead of returning to 168, where he has dominated most of his competition for a few years.

LA celebrities in attendance included Don Cheadle, Rosie Perez, director Peter Berg and Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay.

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“Zootopia 2” had a roaring and record-setting opening at the box office.

The animated animal city sequel from the Walt Disney Company brought in $96 million in North America over the weekend, earned $156 million over the five-day Thanksgiving frame, and scored a staggering $556 million globally since its Wednesday opening, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That made it the highest international opening ever for an animated movie, the fourth highest global debut of any kind, and the top international opener of 2025.

“Wicked: For Good” stayed aloft in its second weekend for Universal Pictures, earning another $62.8 million domestically over the weekend for a North American total of $270.4 million. The second half of the “Wicked” saga has brought in $393 million internationally.

The pair of PG-rated sequels combined to make the Thanksgiving weekend a glimmering exception to an otherwise dark year at movie theaters. The five-day holiday run brought in $290 million in total, $188 million of it coming Friday through Sunday.

That could be a blip or an indication that a strong finish might salvage Hollywood's box office year, with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Five Nights at Freddy's 2” among the films still to be released in 2025.

“This is a great result and a big momentum builder for the box office as we head into the final four weeks of the year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.

“Zootopia 2” arrives almost a decade after the original, a hit that outpaced expectations and had a March domestic opening of $75 million.

Like the first, it features the duo of bunny cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and small-time hustler fox Nick Wilde ( Jason Bateman ) in a city of comically domesticated wildlife.

Dergarabedian said the sequel represented “a beloved franchise delivering what audiences were looking for around the world.”

It was the sixth biggest North American opening of 2025. But its biggest market was China, which made for nearly half of the film’s global total with a whopping $272 million in ticket sales. No American-made animated film has ever opened bigger. It was the second best nonlocal film opening of all time in China, after “Avengers: Endgame.”

Such a result in China was once almost commonplace for Hollywood. But in recent years, as geopolitical relations have grown uneasy, box-office results have turned unpredictable at best. Aside from a handful of exceptions, like the “Jurassic World” films, Hollywood has come to virtually write off Chinese theaters and recalibrate blockbuster budgets accordingly.

The big bounty in China for “Zootopia 2” could be an aberration or a signal of a thaw in the freeze. In recent years, China, which censors which films that are released in theaters, has leaned more toward homegrown fare. Earlier this year, the locally made blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossed $1.8 billion in China.

“Zootopia 2” had a clear path to a big Chinese opening. The first “Zootopia,” known there as “Crazy Animal City,” grew into a surprise hit, grossing $236 million. Shanghai Disneyland has a theme land devoted to the films.

“Wicked: For Good” didn't seem to be hurt by the beastly competition as Universal's gamble of splitting the Broadway tale of Oz into two films continued to pay off. It brought in a worldwide weekend total of $92.2 million.

“Hamnet,” certain to be a major player in awards season after a celebrated festival run, had a strong limited opening and landed in the overall top 10. In just 119 theaters it earned $1.35 million from Wednesday through Sunday and $880,000 on the weekend, with a per-theater average of more than $11,000. Director Chloe Zhao's Shakespeare story starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal expands next weekend.

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “Zootopia 2,” $96.8 million.

2. “Wicked: For Good,” $62.8 million.

3. “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” $7 million.

4. “Predator: Badlands,” $4.8 million.

5. “The Running Man,” $3.7 million.

6. “Eternity,” $3.2 million.

7. “Rental Family,” $2.1 million.

8. “Hamnet,” $880,000.

9. “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” $810,000.

10. “Nuremberg,” $749,325.

This story has been corrected to show that “Zootopia 2" had the sixth biggest North American opening of 2025, not the fourth.