As majestic as Linares’ win in Manchester was last time out I get the feeling that to once again leave as the victor an even more impressive showing will be required.
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“I’m going to feed off this energy, feed off the crowd tomorrow night”, Crolla told Sky Sports News HQ. All three judges rewarded Linares’ dominance – which included a 7th round knockdown – with fair scores of 118-109.
Crolla was welcome into the venue in his hometown to an ear-shaking reception.
The well-traveled Venezuelan was a former featherweight and junior lightweight champion before moving his training camp, but struggled to adjust to the higher weight classes and was knocked out three times from 2009 to 2012.
Crolla won a world title in 2015 by fifth-round body shot knockout of Darleys Perez in an immediate rematch of their majority draw, and then starched risky interim titlist/mandatory challenger Ismael Barroso in the seventh round to retain the title.
But, just as then, there was no doubt who was the better man and who was the deserved victor. In the ensuing scrum, he was hit over the head with a concrete slab, suffering a fractured skull and a broken ankle. All I am willing to predict here is that Anthony Crolla and Jorge Linares will once again combine to give us a brilliant boxing match.
The rematch was never the same contest.
He would find that an impossible task as Linares started on the back foot, popping his jab to find range before delivering fierce right hands. Hopefully, next up for him will be undefeated WBC champion Mikey Garcia. Linares continued the trend through round four, controlling with his jab and using his footwork to keep Crolla at a comfortable distance. His shots were blisteringly quick, a two-shot combination ending with a right uppercut in the third. Crolla was coming forward with a primitive caveman style trying to get inside so that he could throw his body shots, and this made it incredibly easy for Linares to nail him with big uppercuts. The bout aired on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. Manchester I’m so sorry I couldn’t do it for you. I am very mature, very hungry. “Showed skills, flexibility. I think it would be a great, great fight for me. Right now I can beat both of them, but I have to get my job done on Saturday night”.
Defeat should not spell the end of the road for Crolla, who proved his battling spirit once again but ultimately went home empty handed.
“I’m gutted I couldn’t do it in front of these fans”.
After Round 11, Crolla’s trainer, Joe Gallagher, attempted to call off the fight until Crolla talked him out of it.
“But if it’s anything to go by, we thought David Haye was going to beat Tony Bellew, didn’t we?” He wanted to go out on his shield. So, at times, I do need to drag him into a fight.
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Crolla insists he has made crucial adjustments after defeat when the two fighters met previous year: “Obviously, I’m not going to give too much away, but we have to be smarter in the ring”. He was absolutely brilliant. You lost on points to one of the best pound for pound fighters.
