Jorge Linares Warns Vasyl Lomachenko He Will Not Outbox Him

The World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champion Jorge Linares has warned pound-for-pound king Vasyl Lomachenko that he will not experience the same level of ease when they meet each other in the ring.

Lomachenko defended his World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior lightweight title against Guillermo Rigondeaux in December last year as he inflicted the Cuban boxer's first-ever professional loss before proceeding to target a fight with Linares. The Ukrainian has already won titles in two weight divisions and is targeting a third now with the Linares fight expected to take place on May 12 at New York's Madison Square Garden.

A controversial split-decision loss aside, Lomachenko has largely dominated every single opponent he has faced in his relatively short professional career with 10 wins and one loss. However, the Venezuelan, who boasts a 44-3 record and is currently riding a 13-fight win streak, remains confident of defeating "Hi Tech" in a contest that he believes will be a "big attraction" in boxing.

"Vasyl Lomachenko is a fast and excellent and admirable fighter, but when Lomachenko puts on the gloves and gets in the same ring with me — it will be different and things will not be the same as they were before [with his other opponents]," Linares said, according to BoxingScene. "He will not be able to box like that with me. I would like to fight with Vasyl Lomachenko above everything else and at all costs."

"Our styles of boxing are similar, and I'm not even thinking about Lomachenko being younger than me. Our fight will be a big attraction," he said.

While the potential fight has taken a major step closer to becoming complete, it is not official yet as Linares' promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions is still waiting for confirmation from Lomachenko's promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.

A conflict over the date of the fight had cropped up earlier as Top Rank wanted to stage the fight on ESPN for May 12, while Golden Boy wanted a different date as it would clash with the HBO replay of the Canelo vs Golovkin rematch. The two middleweights were set to clash again in their highly-anticipated rematch on May 5, with HBO scheduling the replay on the same date as the proposed Linares vs Lomachenko fight. However, that no longer seems to be an issue.

Meanwhile, another fighter Lomachenko has targeted is newly-crowned IBF junior welterweight champion Mikey Garcia.

Still holding the WBC lightweight title, Garcia moved up in weight to defeat Sergey Lipinets via unanimous decision on Saturday and become a world champion in four different weight classes. However, when questioned on a potential fight with Lomachenko, the American did not seem hopeful.

"If he wants to come up, I’ve been calling him out for a year and he still hasn’t moved up,” Garcia replied at the post-fight press conference. "He’s the one fighting Beltran. They got their own agenda. I’m already at 140, possibly 147. He’s doing what I did 3 to 4 years ago."