By Allan Fox: WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla and Jorge Linares will be fighting this Saturday night for the Ring Magazine lightweight belt at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Crolla, 29, covets the Ring title, as he would like to add the belt to his collection.
It won’t be easy for Crolla to win the title, because he’s facing what could be the best opponent of his career. Linares isn’t a big slugger like Derry Mathews or Ismael Barroso, but he’s got great boxing skills that are second to none.
Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing
If Crolla (31-3-3, 13 KOs) can’t hurt Linares with his body shots to get a knockout in this fight, then we could see Crolla having a really tough time on Saturday night. Crolla still expects to win the fight even if he’s not able to get the KO over Linares (40-3, 27 KOs), but it’ll be hard for him to get the win. Linares is so highly skills.
“Winning the Ring belt is one of the ultimate prizes in the sport, not many Brits have done that and it’s only right that I am fighting a great fighter for it,” said Crolla to Fight News. “I’m humbled and blessed by both fighting Jorge and fighting for the Ring belt, but that’s not the end of my ambitions, I’ll be happy when I have the belt on my mantelpiece and then get back in the gym and go on and do more great things.”
Linares was the WBC lightweight champion until recently being given the Emeritus tag due to him not defending the belt since last October in beating Ivan Cano by a 4th round knockout.
The World Boxing Council is one of the sanctioning bodies that move quickly to change the status of their champions if they’re injured or inactive for a period of time. In the case of Linares, he had last defended eight months prior before the WBC stepped in and stripped of his title due to inactivity. Linares hadn’t even been inactive for a year when he was stripped.
“I have to pull out another career-best performance again. Anything less is not going to be enough,” said Crolla about Linares. “He’s the best fighter that I’ve shared the ring with and you only have to look at his record to know the level he’s operated at for a long time and see how big a task it is. I bring something different to the table that he’s seen before and I believe I’ll have too much for him.”
This could be a tough one for Crolla. He hasn’t anyone with the kind of boxing skills that Linares has going for him, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he does against him. Linares is getting up there in age at 31, but he looked very good in his last two fights against Ivan Cano and Kevin Mitchell in 2015.
If Linares can fight at that level this Saturday, then it’s going to be really hard for Crolla to win. He’s not as skills as Linares. There aren’t too many fighters that are in the sport. Crolla has the fans on his side in this fight though, and that might be enough for him to get the win.