Ismael Barroso coming for Anthony Crolla’s scalp

By Boxing News - 05/02/2016 - Comments

crolla092By Scott Gilfoid: WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) will be making his first and perhaps his only defense of his WBA title this Saturday night against a virtual freight train in #1 WBA Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Crolla has the hometown advantage in this fight, but in this case I don’t see it being any help for him. Barroso is simply an unstoppable force of nature, and no amount of screaming from Crolla’s home fans is going to change that.

If anything, Crolla’s fans will lead to an early demise for the 29-year-old Crolla because Barroso seems to get motivated when he has fans cheering his opponents. I think he sees the cheering an exciting and he just pours it on until his opponents collapse on the canvas.

That’s what we saw from Barroso’s last opponent Kevin Mitchell, who I rate as a better fighter than Crolla by a long shot. I still don’t understand why Mitchell retired because he’s still a good fighter. He’s just good enough to beat a talent like Barroso. Last December, Mitchell had the home advantage against Barroso at the O2 in London, and the crowd was cheering Mitchell even when he was missing punches.

Instead of Barroso being unnerved by the screaming, he just increased the pace of his attacks against him until he knocked him down in the fourth round. Mitchell was pretty much beaten and battered by the time Barroso put the coup de grace on him in the 5th in blasting him to the canvas for the final knockout. It was like watching a miniature George Foreman blow out Joe Frazier in that fight. Both guys were huge punchers, but Barroso was the better puncher of the two and he just mowed Mitchell down in short order.

“Once that bell goes it’s just you and the fighter but the crowd lifts me up that extra gear when you’re feeling it in a fight like that, it makes it that little bit easier, “ said Crolla to skysports.com. “You want to make them proud and that’s what I plan on doing on Saturday night.”

If I were Crolla, I wouldn’t be counting on the crowd to try and lift me up for the fight, because the crowd will likely work against him on Saturday night. Like I said, Barroso likes cheering of any kind, whether it be for him or against him, and he’s likely to knock Crolla’s head off if the crowd cheers too much.

Heck, Barroso’s going to give Crolla huge headaches even if the crowd doesn’t make a peep. If I’m Crolla, I’m hoping that the crowd stays as quiet as a church mouse on Saturday night because the last thing I want is to have an energized punching machine like Barroso beading down on me with both fists and not letting up for anything. That’s the thing about Barroso.

He’s a murderous puncher who never stops punching. He kind of reminds me of a prime Aaron Pryor with the way that fighter would just never stop throwing shots. Crolla is accustomed to fighting guys that throw one punch at a time and step back and survey the damage. That’s not how Barroso fights. He just wades in like a giant storm surge that just keeps coming forward until he’s crushed you.

“I’m very proud of the title and it’s something that I’ve worked very hard to get. That’s why I’ve left no stone unturned to make sure that belt stays in Manchester,” said Crolla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAzWVP9b8Q

Crolla won the WBA title last November in stopping champion Darleys Perez with a left to the body in the fifth round. That was obviously the high point of Crolla’s 10-year-old career, as it’s given him his 15 minutes of fame. Unfortunately, Perez was little more than a paper champion who was going to be losing his title once he faces Barroso anyway, so all Crolla did was beat Barroso to him.

Now it’s Crolla is about to step in front of this freight train Barroso on Saturday night, and I have to admit that I feel a little bit sorry for Crolla. He has my sympathy because I don’t think it’s going to go too well for him. Indeed, I think Crolla is going to get blasted to smithereens in front of his own fans, and there’s nothing he can do about it other than to try and run and hold and hope that he gets some lucky breaks in terms of the scoring for the fight.

If Crolla can luck out with the referee suddenly taking over the fight and taking off point after point from Barroso in the later rounds of the contest, as we saw in the Crolla-Perez I fight, then maybe Crolla might have a chance of winning. He surely would have lost the first Perez fight if not for the referee taking over the fight in the later rounds when things were looking bleak for Crolla.

The thing is no amount of point deductions from Barroso will likely save Crolla from losing this fight, because Barroso is clearly going to make sure that it doesn’t go to the judges on Saturday night. In other words, the judges will just be hanging out watching the spectacle and they’ll not figure into the outcome of the contest.

That’s my prediction. As such, I think it won’t matter if the referee takes even five points away from Barroso in the championship rounds, I still Crolla getting knocked out. The thing of it is, I don’t see Crolla even making it to the second half of the fight unfortunately. Barroso is just too good, and he’s not going to let up for anything. I don’t care if Crolla runs, shoves and holds, he’s likely going to get hammered into the dust.

It’ll just look bad on Crolla’s part if he runs from Barroso, because he’ll wind up getting booed out of the Manchester Arena like we were seeing with heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury last Saturday night in his fight against Fred Kassi. That fight took place at the Copper Box Arena in London, but the fans still booed Fury due to his running.

They wanted to see a fight, not a track meet. Crolla will lose if he runs. That’s why it’s better for him to go out on his shield by standing and fighting because at least he’ll be able to hold his head up high afterwards.