By Scott Gilfoid: WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia says Anthony Crolla can defeat WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares this Saturday if he makes the proper adjustments. The last time they fought, it was close, says Mikey. He thinks that Crolla has enough talent to beat the better skilled Linares if he comes in with a better game plan for their fight on March 25 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The problem that Crolla (31-5-3, 13 KOs) has is he was out-boxed by a one-handed Linares (41-3, 27 KOs) the last time they fought, as he was dealing with a right hand injury. For Saturday’s fight, Linares is totally healthy and will be able to hit Crolla with 100% of his power in his right hand. That’s definitely not good news for Crolla, because he doesn’t have the boxing ability to avoid shots and he’ll need to depend more on his chin than he did last time they fought.
For the most part, Crolla only had to worry about Linares’ left hands in their fight last September. Linares still won by the sores 114-113, 115-113 and 117-111. The first two scores were a little disturbing because the fight was not that close. I thought it was pretty one-sided with Linares winning.
If you watch the fight with the sound off on your television, you’ll know what I’m talking about. When you shutout the crowd noise, which largely pro-Crolla fans, you’ll note that Linares was giving Crolla a boxing lesson with just one hand. Linares showed in that fight why he’s considered one of the best technical fighters in the sport. Linares’ chin might not be the best, but his technical skills are extraordinary. Crolla didn’t have the ability to compete with Linares’ skillset. The scores very bizarre the last time they fought. I just hope that this Saturday’s fight isn’t marred with the same oddball scoring.
“If Crolla makes some proper adjustments, then he has a better chance in the rematch. A real chance,” said Mikey Garcia to skysports.com. “Anthony Crolla put up a very good fight. He had some success, so I am not counting him out.”
Crolla had his best success in the first 6 rounds against Linares when he was fighting on the energy from the crowd. However, after Linares hurt Crolla with a shot to the midsection in the 6th, the fight became really one-sided. I thought Crolla won 2 rounds in the first half of the fight. Things went downhill for Crolla from round 6 to 12, as he took punishment and looked like he faded badly.
I didn’t give Crolla any rounds from the 6th through the 12th. He didn’t do nearly enough to even come close to winning a round. I don’t know what Mikey Garcia is talking about in saying the fight was close. But then again, Mikey also thought Danny Jacobs beat Gennady Golovkin last Saturday, so I don’t rate his ability to evaluate fights very highly at all. Mikey is a good fighter, but he’s way off in his analysis of the Golovkin-Jacobs and Linares-Crolla fights in my opinion.
“I would really like to see him make adjustments if he can and get Linares off his game-plan, he could definitely win it, said Mikey. “But if he is unable to – and the boxing skills of Linares are just a little bit too much for Crolla, then Linares will take it again.”
It’s interesting that Mikey wants Crolla to win. Mikey says he would be open to fighting Crolla in the UK. The fact that Mikey seems to be pulling for Crolla to win, it’s another reason to ignore his analysis of the fight. I don’t see what adjustments that Crolla can make for him to beat Linares on Saturday. The only thing that Crolla was able to do reasonably well last time they fought was crowd Linares and throw to the body.
What adjustments does Mikey want Crolla to make? Does he want to have Crolla crowd Linares even more? Linares was able to move his feet and stick a jab in Crolla’s face each time he would try and get close enough to throw to the body. When both fighters were on the outside, Linares totally dominated the action with his longer reach, stiff jabs and his super boxing skills. Crolla tried hard to get close, but he paid for it each time he came forward. When Crolla would get close, it was Linares that was punishing him with body shots and combinations.
Linares would then move away before Crolla could set up shot. Unless Linares suffers a leg injury on Saturday night that keeps him from moving, he’s going to be able to get distance from Crolla. There are no adjustments that Crolla can make for him to beat Linares, from what I can see. The only thing that Crolla can try to do is to wade through the heavy fire of Linares to get close enough to try and land a big body shot like he did in his rematch with Darley’s Perez. That’s about the only thing Crolla can do. In other words, Crolla has a puncher’s chance of beating Linares.
I’m hoping we don’t see a controversial decision in the Linares-Crolla fight like we did in Crolla’s first fight with Darley’s Perez in 2015. The referee for the Linares vs. Crolla fight will be important. We saw how the referee basically took over the Perez vs. Crolla 1 fight in the last two rounds when he twice took points off from the visiting Perez for low blows. In both cases, Crolla pulled down on the head of Perez as he was throwing punches. How the referee could miss Crolla pulling down on Perez’s head is anyone’s guess. Neither of those point deductions should have occurred in my view. Perez would have won the fight if the referee hadn’t taken those points away from him in consecutive rounds in the 11th and 12th. Crolla should have been warned for pulling down on Perez’s head. That’s why it’s important that we get a referee that sees what’s going on in the fight. Crolla was looking at the referee last September during the early rounds against Linares when he was hitting him with body shots ABOVE the belt line. It looked to me like Crolla wanted the referee to step in and take points away from Linares for him throwing body shots. Thankfully the referee did a great job by not taking over the fight and deducting points from Linares for his body shots.
Prediction
Linares is going to use his combination punching to tattoo Crolla with shots all night long on Saturday. I see Crolla getting hurt by a body shot by the 6th or 7th round, and then taken out with a flurry of punches from Linares. Crolla’s dream of fighting in Las Vegas under the bright lights will go up in smoke with the defeat. I mean, Crolla will still be able to fight in Vegas if he wants to, but the circumstances will be a little different. He’ll be a challenger, not the champion. Crolla needs to try his best to land a body shot against Linares on Saturday like the one he did against Darleys Perez in their rematch. I just don’t see it happening because Linares doesn’t make stupid mistakes like backing up against the ropes.