By Scott Gilfoid: Jorge Linares (41-3, 27 KOs) showed off his stuff tonight in defeating World Boxing Association lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (31-5-3, 13 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to capture the WBA, Diamond strap and Ring lightweight title on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The final judges’ scores were 115-114, 117-111, and 115-113.
Crolla was badly hurt in the 6th round from a huge shot by Linares. The fight was never the same for Crolla following that round, as he still seemed a little dazed in the last half of the fight and wasn’t able to come up with the punching power and most importantly the pressure to give Linares problems.
In rounds three and four, Crolla had MAJOR problems with the body shots from Linares, as he backed up twice after getting hit with hard shots on the belt-line. Crolla played to the referee Terry O’Connor in letting him believe that he’d been hit low. O’Connor than gave Linares three warnings for his punches on the belt-line. I don’t think O’Connor even saw the shots, but was so sad how Crolla kept turning around to the referee when he would get hit with a body shot. Sadly, it was the same stuff we saw from Crolla in his first fight against Darleys Perez, where he would look at the referee for him to step in when he would get hit with belt-line shots. The referee eventually took two points away from Darleys Perez in the 11th and 12th rounds in a fight that ended in a draw due to the point deductions. Thankfully, O’Connor didn’t ruin this fight by taking points off, because it would have sent the wrong message. Crolla needs to let the referee do his job instead of looking over at them constantly when he’s hit with belt-line shots.
“I hurt my hand in the sixth round, and backed off and it worked. I told my corner my strategy in the 10th round and what I was going to do for the next three rounds,” said Linares.
I noticed that Linares stopped using his right hand in the 5th round. He was throwing almost all left hands from that point in the fight. Fortunately for the talented Linares, his left hand was out of this world good. He was throwing it with perfect form to the body and head of Crolla. I might have been better for Crolla if Linares hadn’t hurt his right hand, because he was less dangerous when he was throwing a lot of right hands. Once Linares was forced to throw mainly lefts, he was nailing Crolla with beautiful body shots that had him looking at referee Terry O’Connor in what appeared to be attempts to get him to step in and penalize Linares.
Linares looked to be gassing out badly in the 5th round from the pressure that Crolla was putting on him. Going into the 6th, it looked like Crolla was going to break Linares down to get a stoppage. Linares was no longer throwing body shots like he’d done in the first rounds, perhaps due to Crolla playing to the referee for sympathy when he was hit hard in the midsection. Linares suffered a cut over his left eye in the 5th, but it didn’t seem to negatively impact his game.
Crolla came back a little in the 7th round to land some nice shots. I thought he just edged the round with his pressure. You’ve got to give Crolla credit for coming back strong in the 7th after being badly buzzed in the previous round.
Linares got his second wind in the 8th, and began to punish Crolla was blistering fast combinations to the head. Linares still wasn’t throwing a lot of body shots for fear of losing a point, but his head shots were superb. Crolla was walking into the shots, which likely made them a lot harder than they already were.
In rounds nine through twelve, Crolla looked spent, as he didn’t have the power, aggression or the hand speed to compete effectively with Linares. At that point in the contest, Linares began to smile at his corner because he knew he had the upper-hand on Crolla.
All in all, it was a first class effort from Linares in taking Crolla to school tonight and giving him a boxing lesson. Linares showed that he was the better boxer of the two by far. Crolla did a good job of pressuring Linares like a smaller, weaker Gennady Golovkin. If Crolla had some actual power, he would have won the fight. That was the main thing that was missing from him tonight. Crolla just cannot punch, and Linares can. Linares had the upper hand in the speed, power, experience and boxing skills department. Crolla had the guts, pressure style and the hometown advantage. In the end, there were too many things in favor of Linares for Crolla to come out on top. He tried, but he couldn’t do it. If the referee Terry O’Connor had stepped in to take points away from Linares twice like what had happened in the Crolla-Perez I fight, then we would have seen Crolla getting the win. But the referee chose not to change the outcome of the fight by taking points away from Linares over and over again like the referee that had worked the Crolla-Perez fight. It’s a good thing, because the last thing that Crolla needs is to be seen as a guy that plays to the referee when he’s hit to the point in order to have points taken away. Crolla needs to let the referee do his job and not look at him for sympathy each time he gets hit in the bread basket.
With the win, Linares is now the Ring Magazine lightweight champion. I see it a symbolic thing rather than an indication that Linares is the best fighter in the lightweight division. I rate Mikey Garcia, Robert Easter Jr, Dejan Zlaticanin and Terry Flanagan as all being better fighters than Linares.
***
Other boxing results on the card:
Jack Arnfield UD 12 John Ryder
Callum Johnson KO 9 Willbeforce Shihepo
Conor Benn PTS 6 Ross Jameson
Hosea Burton KO 3 Fernando Castaneda
