

By Ryan Burton
We are just a few hours away from the highly anticipated Jorge Linares-Vasyl Lomachenko showdown that will air live on ESPN.
Linares' WBA lightweight belt will be at stake on May 12th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The 32-year-old Linares has been training hard at his gym in Las Vegas as he prepares himself for the biggest fight in his career.
He knows that he will need to be at his best to defeat Lomachenko, who many feel is the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.
"After this fight why not a fight against Mikey Garcia or why not a rematch?," Linares replied to a question asked about what he will want to do after the Lomachenko fight.
"What I am focused on is putting on the greatest performance of my career. I want to show more in this fight. What I didn't show against Mercito Gesta and what I didn't show against Luke Campbell I have to show in this fight. I have to do it by any means necessary. So that the people will look back and will say he is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters out there. That is why we are working double and triple as hard. It is what I have dreamed of."
The fight was very difficult to make but ultimately Top Rank, who promotes Lomachenko, and Golden Boy Promotions and Teiken Promotions who co-promote Linares, were able to come to an agreement and Linares will earn a career high payday.
Linares and Lomachenko both pushed hard for the fight on their social media networks and the Venezuelan is very excited that the fight is coming to fruition.
Like many fans and insiders alike, Linares believes this is one of the best match ups of the year.
"What is better than this fight? What is better than Jorge Linares and Lomachenko? These are two of the best fighters out there. I have had a long career. I wasn't in the Olympics like him and I respect that but look at him, he doesn't even have 15 professional fights and I have 47. We are two different worlds but we are both highly thought of and we are high level fighters. The fans are very happy that they are going to be able to see us fight each other," Linares told BoxingScene.com.
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