Crolla stops Perez in 5th round! – results

By Boxing News - 11/21/2015 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: In a surprising upset win, the light hitting #8 WBA contender Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) scored a 5th round knockout win over WBA World lightweight champion Darleys Perez (32-2-1, 20 KOs) on Saturday night to win the WBA title in front of a huge crowd of pro Crolla supporters at the Manchester, Arena in Manchester, UK.

Crolla backed the much harder punching Perez to the ropes in the 5th round and then dropped him with a left hook to the midsection. The shot put Perez on all fours on the canvas. He was too hurt to get back to his feet unfortunate. The referee Terry O’Connor then halted the fight at 2:30 of the round when Perez couldn’t beat the count. It’s hard to understand what was going through Perez’s mind in the 5th round, because he just stopped punching and let Crolla back him up to the ropes. I didn’t looked very strange.

At the time of the stoppage, I had Perez ahead in the fight 3 rounds to 1. He was being outworked slightly by Crolla, but he was landing the much harder blows. You could hear the sound of Perez’s big shots as they landed to the head of Crolla. Perez didn’t take any chances by throwing any body shots because he looked like he was afraid of being penalized for low blows like he did last time he fought Crolla in the UK.

Crolla’s promoter Eddie Hearn was babbling after the fight about Crolla’s future without giving any specifics about who he wants him to fight. This is all I could get out of Hearn “Now we’re going to go on and have some mega-fights that are going to change his life.” I’d like to see if Hearn is going to dare to match Crolla against WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan or #4 WBA Felix Verdejo. I see Crolla getting destroyed by both of those guys. If Hearn has any of those guys in mind for Crolla in the near future, then I don’t see him holding onto his WBA title for more than a drink of water. But if Hearn means he’s going to have Crolla go on a milking stage by facing some guys like Derry Mathews and Kevin Mitchell, then Crolla might be able to hold onto his title for a little while. Heck, I’m not even sure that Crolla could beat those guys. Those would be very, very tough fights for Crolla. I don’t see those fights as “Mega-fights” as Hearn was saying.

Don’t be surprised if Hearn puts Crolla in the main event of some of his pay-per-view bouts from this point on. Hearn was smiling way too much for taste, and I think the wheels are spinning in his head now how he can have Crolla head-lining his own PPV fights from this point forward. As long as Crolla keeps winning, I think Hearn will be able to justify having him as a PPV attraction. Hearn was grinning like the Cheshire cat when he was being interviewed after the fight. I think Crolla’s win may have knocked some ideas into the head of Hearn.

Crolla’s loyal fans are celebrating now, but they may be crying later if/when Hearn makes his fights on Sky Box Office PPV. I’m just saying. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

In hindsight, Perez was too relaxed out there tonight. He needed to be on the attack with Crolla instead of letting the light hitter outwork him and backing up to the ropes like he had no sense at all in his head. There’s no way that the stronger Perez should have let a weak puncher like Crolla back him up. I mean, could you imagine Flanagan or Verdejo letting a guy like Crolla back them up? No way. Those guys would stop Crolla in his tracks as soon as he tried to back them up, and it would be an easy fight for them.

Other boxing results on tonight’s Perez vs. Crolla card:

Tyrone Nurse UD 12 Chris Jenkins
Ryan Burnett UD 12 Jason Booth
Charlie Edwards TKO 6 Phil Smith
Brian Rose PTS 8 Ruslans Pojonisevs
Marcus Morrison PTS 6 Simone Lucas
Liam Taylor TKO 2 Imre Simon



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