By Gavin Duthie: Mr ‘Bouncebackaility’ Derry Mathews 35-9-2(19) has kept his name in the frame on the British domestic scene with a 12 round split decision victory over Martin Gethin 24-5-1 (11). With this win Derry has become the British champion for the second time. After his recent defeat to Stephen Ormond for the European crown a win was essential for Matthews on Saturday night.
For me this sets up a much anticipated 3rd fight with Anthony Crolla 28-4-1 (11). I put Derry in the same bracket as the likes of retired duo Michael Gomez and Carl Johansen. We know he is at best a British/European level fighter but he’s always exciting to watch and that’s what sport is all about. Conversely Eddie Hearn is trying to convince us that Anthony Crolla is at world level despite the fact he has fought Matthews twice and the best he has managed is one draw. Mathews stopped Crolla in their first fight after a barrage of unanswered punches on the ropes in the 7th round and was ahead in the second fight until Crolla arguably took the last few rounds scraping the draw.
Promotional Issues
Its clear what Eddie Hearn’s plans are for his squad of British Lightweight fighters. Ricky Burns is fighting in June in a WBC eliminator so has set his sights on Omar Figueroa. Kevin Mitchell has an IBF eliminator bout on the Froch v Groves 2 undercard so he is targeting Miguel Vasquez. As a result there is only one title left to go for, Cuban boxer Richar Abril’s 18-3 (8) WBA title.
After Crolla impressively stopped John Murray in April it was predictable that Eddie Hearn dropped Abril’s name in the post fight interview. Unfortunately for Eddie it doesn’t work like that. Crolla is not even in the top 15 with the WBA at present. In fact of the 4 governing bodies Crolla is in the top fifteen in only one, number 6 with the WBO. Terence Crawford is the champion there and I can’t see Hearn going after him because of his win over Ricky Burns.
Derry Matthews also signed a five fight deal with Frank Warren’s Queensbury promotions in October 2013 to see out the rest of his career. He is already two fights in after Saturdays victory over Gethin.
The Current Lightweight WBA scene
For Crolla to even get a sniff of a fight with Abril he would have to fight an eliminator first. With WBA mandatory Yuriorkis Gamboa fighting Terence Crawford some of the following contenders for an eliminator fight would be:
WBA current ratings
2. Jorge Linares 36-3 (23)
3. Rustam Nugaev 27-6-1 (17)
4. Eduard Troyanovsky 17-0 (14)
Abril is probably the weakest champion in the Lightweight Division. He has fought ten times less than Crolla and has suffered defeats to Breidis Prescott, Henry Lundy and Brandon Rios although all by split decision. He has also been inactive for over a year. Despite this if Eddie Hearn brought the likes of Linares, Nugaev or Troyanovsky to Manchester it wouldn’t generate anywhere near the amount of interest as a third fight with Matthews.
Unfortunately for Crolla despite his last three impressive victories of Gavin Rees, Stephen Foster Jnr and John Murray this did little to bring him up the rankings on the world scene. Crolla and Hearn need to decide whether continuing to fight domestically or moving to ranked fighters in the WBA would be more productive for his career.
For me I still don’t quite feel that Crolla is world class but before he leaves the British nest for bigger and better things it is imperative that he puts the Derry Matthews saga behind him.
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