By Scott Gilfoid: The appeal by Anthony Crolla (29-4-3, 11 KOs) and his promoter Eddie Hearn to the World Boxing Association has paid off with the WBA letting Crolla fight WBA World lightweight champion Darleys Perez (32-1-1, 20 KOs) again in a rematch that will be taking place on November 21st at the Manchester Arena in in Manchester, UK.
Crolla came up empty in having to settle for a 12 round draw in their fight last July. It’s a fight that Crolla would have lost hand the referee not taken points off from Perez in the 11th and 12th rounds of that fight. The fight kind of reminded me of the Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson bout from 2011.
Peterson would have lost the fight if not for the referee taking two points off for Khan shoving Peterson over and over again. But in the case of the Perez-Crolla fight, Perez lost points for low blows. The point deductions occurred in the crucial 11th and 12th rounds by the referee.
The point deduction in the 12th came when Crolla pulled down on Perez’s head as he was throwing a punch. This caused Perez to hit low. The referee, who should have seen that Perez’s head was being pulled down, completely blew the call. This was back to back point deductions against Perez.
I haven’t seen immediate point deductions coming one after another, but Crolla should be very happy that happened because he would have lost the fight without the valuable point deductions against Perez.
The scores were 113-113, 113-113 and 116-111 for Crolla. Like I said, without those two point deductions for low blows, Crolla loses the fight.
You have to wonder what Perez is thinking. He has to travel to the UK again to fight Crolla in the same place that he did the last time. It’s got to be an unnerving situation for Perez, because he must feel like he’s going to have to be looking for a KO in order to make sure he gets his hand raised.
“I’m so pleased for Anthony that he gets another bite of the cherry in his home city,” said Hearn via Matchroom Boxing. “I haven’t found anyone yet who didn’t feel that he won the first fight but that’s in the past now and he has to make this count. I feel like he is destined to win a world title and I truly believe his dreams will come true.”
Hearn says he hasn’t found anyone that feels that Crolla didn’t win the fight. I don’t think Crolla won the fight, and I watched the fight more than once. I only gave Crolla a couple of rounds, and I totally disagreed with the point deductions. Heck, Crolla was landing some beautiful low blows, and the referee didn’t jump his case and start taking off points left and right. I think Perez shouldn’t have had any points taken off, and I feel that he won an easy 12 round decision by a 10 rounds to 2 margin.
In a way this is going to be really bad for the No.11 WBA Crolla, because Perez is going to likely come into the rematch looking to take Crolla’s head off in order to make sure that he doesn’t find himself losing points in the championship rounds by point deductions. If Perez scores a knockout, he doesn’t have to worry about the referee or the judges.
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