Anthony Crolla vs. Ismael Barroso possible for May 7 in Manchester, UK

By Boxing News - 03/05/2016 - Comments

crolla2By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) is being talked about defending his WBA title against his #1 WBA mandatory challenger Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) on May 7 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

This is a tough fight for the 29-year-old Crolla because he just won his WBA 130lb title last November in halting champion Darleys Perez in the 5th round, with a surprise knockout in their rematch in Manchester. Crolla is not known for being a puncher, but somehow he was able to take the tough as nails Perez out with a left hand body shot in round five.

Instead of Crolla getting two title-milking voluntary defenses for his next couple of bouts, he is being thrown immediately into the fire by having to face the 32-year-old Barroso next. Crolla could have bypassed the Barroso fight temporarily if he had taken a unification fight against the likes of WBC champ Jorge Linares or WBO champion Terry Flanagan. It’s unclear if Crolla’s promoter Eddie Hearn attempted to do that or not. It wouldn’t be surprising if he did but came up empty.

Barroso, who comes from Venezuela, recently blasted a part former world title challenger Kevin Mitchell in five rounds last December in a one-sided fight. Barroso dropped Mitchell three times in the fight before it was over. Barroso captured the interim WBA lightweight title with his win over Mitchell. Recently, Mitchell retired from boxing. As such, his last fight of his career will be his loss to Barroso.

Crolla and his training team supposedly saw something in the southpaw Barroso’s performance in his win over Mitchell that they think they can exploit. I’m not sure what it is though. Barroso looked amazing and next to invincible in destroying Mitchell like he was a rank amateur.

About the only thing I can spot where Barroso looked vulnerable was in taking shots to the body. Mitchell had some success in landing hard body shots that briefly caused Barroso to slow his nonstop punches down. It wasn’t for very long though, because Barroso immediately started cranking out the punches again and Mitchell was forced to cover up in order to keep from being annihilated.

That’s the thing about Barroso. You can land a shot or two that will connect, but it’s next to impossible to put additional shots together because he’s on top of you, throwing one shot after another with major power. If Crolla tries to back Barroso up against the ropes like he did with Perez in the fifth round of their rematch, I don’t think Barroso is going to willingly retreat. He’s someone who is going to keep firing back huge shots like rain coming from the sky.

If Crolla tries to punch in between Barroso’s shots, or match him in any way, he’s going to take a terrible beating. I could see Crolla hitting the deck in the 1st round if he tries to match Barroso’s fire power.

I really don’t see it helping Crolla fighting at home at the Manchester Arena in front of his loyal fans. It sure didn’t help Mitchell any in fighting in front of his own fans in London when he faced Barroso. If anything, it may have hurt Mitchell because he appeared motivated by the crowd noise to slug with Barroso and that had disastrous consequences for him.

Barroso looked positively gleeful in the first couple of rounds when he saw that Mitchell was going to try and slug with him instead of running for the hills like some of the other fighters have done when they faced the talented Barroso.

Crolla has got to be one of the most unlikely champions you’ll ever see. He has no punching power whatsoever, and he’s totally dependent on out-boxing his opposition. I see Crolla as a modern day “Gentleman” Jim Corbett with the way he’s forced to try and be clever in the ring to win his fights.

Judging by Crolla’s four losses and three draws on his record, it looks like his boxing doesn’t always work for him. Besides those seven fights where Croilla was unable to get a victory, he’s a got a couple of very, very questionable wins where he appeared to lose the fight. One of those wins was against Gavin Rees in 2013 and another was against Juan Montiel in 2011. I saw both of those fights and had Crolla losing both of them.



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