By Scott Gilfoid: In a real surprise, WBA World lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (31-4-3, 13 KOs) weathered an early storm to come back and stop the stronger previously unbeaten #1 WBA Ismael Barroso (19-1-2, 18 KOs) in the 7th round on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
Crolla dropped a very tired 33-year-old Barroso in the 7th round. Barroso was then counted out by referee Howard John Foster.
Crolla looked like a punching bag through the first five rounds. It was one of those cases where if Barroso didn’t tire from nailing Crolla in the head, then he would have won the fight. I actually felt sorry for Crolla in the first five rounds because he was taking awful punishment. Every punch Barroso threw landed to the head of Crolla and it painful to look at. Luckily for Crolla, Barroso got arm weary from nailing him with head shots. Crolla was then able to take over the fight starting in the 6th.
It wasn’t a case of the 29-year-old Crolla being really good. It was a more of a case of his opponent Barroso gassing out after punching himself out after hitting Crolla with everything in the kitchen sink in the first five rounds. It was all one-way traffic though the first five rounds. The pro-Crolla crowd began to really scream by the 5th, as he was landing one punch for every five of Barroso’s, but it was still a totally one-sided round in favor of Barroso.
The fight changed hands in the 6th round, when Crolla hurt a tired looking Barroso with a right to the head that staggered him. Crolla was able to land several more right hands befoe the end of the round, but he missed a heck of a lot of punches. At the end of the 6th, Barroso was totally gassed and had absolutely nothing left. I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to be able to regroup in the next round and was I was right.
In the 7th, Barroso landed some nice shots but they didn’t have any power on them. He was throwing shots flat-footed in a way that you could tell he was dog tired. With the crowd screaming with every shot he threw, Crolla landed several hard shots before dropping Barroso with a right to the body. Barroso got to one knee but wasn’t able to beat the count. Crolla’s promoter Eddie Hearn then ran into the ring and started going wild.
With this win, it’s hard to say what Crolla will do. I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. If Hearn makes the mistake of putting Crolla in with WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan or WBC champ Jorge Linares, he may find out the hard way that there are limits to Crolla’s talent. I doubt Hearn will choose to do this though, because those guys don’t gas out after six rounds. They’re capable of using Crolla as a punching bag all night long without fading and at some point, Crolla’s corner would have to save him against those guys.