By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares (42-3, 27 KOs) put on a boxing clinic in defeating former WBA champion Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla (31-6-3, 18 KOs) in what some fans saw as a pointless rematch at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The victory for the 31-year-old Linares earned him the WBC Diamond title and the Ring Magazine lightweight belt.
(Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig)
It’s a high honor to be considered the Ring lightweight champion. Linares can feel proud about that, as he did a great job of showing off his amazing boxing skills. I’ve personally seen a better performance from a fighter in terms of showing of skills. Linares was totally dominating tonight. You almost had to feel sorry for Crolla, because looked like someone that had wondered into the wrong ring and wasn’t equipped to deal with the talent of Linares.
The final judges’ score were 118-108, 118-109 and 118-109. Boxing News 24 scored it 12 rounds to 0 in favor of Linares. The only round where Crolla came close to winning was in the 1st round. Crolla did nothing in the other rounds but plod forward and getting nailed with uppercuts from Linares. Crolla was cut over his left eye in round after getting tagged by a hard right hand from Linares. Crolla took the right hand well, but it opened up the cut. The cut bled the remainder of the fight.
In round 7, Crolla was knocked down by a vicious left uppercut from Linares. The punch caused Crolla to turn around and stagger a couple of feet before going down. Crolla was fortunate that Linares didn’t take advantage of him when he turned around, because he could have brained him if he had wanted to. Crolla barely made out of round 7, as he was hit with a storm of shots from Linares. The punches were coming one after another from Linares, and they were all landing.
Crolla retreated to the ropes and attempted to cover up, but Linares unloaded on him with a ton of big punches. You’ve got to give Crolla credit for being able to take all those shots, because he was hit with an enormous amount of power shots. Crolla seemed to be able to take Linares’ regular power shots. The ones that gave Crolla problems were Linares’ uppercuts. He was landing at least 3 good uppercuts in each round. When I say good, I mean devastating shots that snapped the head back of Crolla. They were similar to the uppercut that Kell Brook hit Gennady Golovkin with in round 2 of their fight last September. The difference is Linares was hitting Crolla with those shots in every round of the fight. Crolla took them, but they caused him to be cautious at times when he needed to be aggressive.
It was a total mastery tonight. Linares looked levels above Crolla. The difference between this fight and the previous one they had together was huge. Linares had two healthy hands for this fight instead of just one like the last time they fought. Linares was hitting Crolla constantly with uppercuts as he would attempt to work his way to the inside to throw his body shots. Linares’ hand speed was too fast for Crolla. But a lot of Linare’s punches landed because Crolla was so sloppy and predictable with his attacks. Crolla was coming forward with a primitive caveman style trying to get inside so that he could throw his body shots, and this made it incredibly easy for Linares to nail him with big uppercuts.
Crolla started to apply more pressure on Linares in round 8 in attempt to get back into the fight after a disastrous 7th round. Crolla landed some good shots in the 8th. Unfortunately for him, Linares landed a heck of a lot more, especially the uppercuts. He almost took Crolla’s head off with a left uppercut near the end of the round. I couldn’t believe that Crolla took the punch, because it snapped his head all the way back as if it were on a swivel.
In round 9, Crolla fought in the first half of the round in landing some big punches. Linares was starting to look a little tired in this round from expending so much energy trying to keep out of the way of Crolla’s desperate hail Mary shots in the previous round. Crolla woke Linares up after hitting him while the two of them were in a clinch. Crolla reached around and tagged Linares with a beautiful rabbit punch to the back of the head. After that punch landed, Linares looked angry and he really went after Crolla, hitting at will with uppercuts, hooks, jabs to the body, you name it. Linares was blasting away at Crolla and making him look a rank amateur in the second half of the round. It’s as if Crolla woke a sleeping giant, because Linares was a much different fighter in the second half of the round compared to the first half. He’d been focusing on his boxing skills in the early part of the round. He didn’t seem like he cared about shooting for a knockout of Crolla, even though he probably could have if he had attacked him with a sustained flurry of combinations.
Crolla got away with a hard low blow in round 10. Linares didn’t look to referee Howard John Foster to try and milk the moment like some fighters would. Linares took the foul without complaints. He was pure class.
In round 11, Linares hit Crolla with a monstrous left uppercut when he had trapped him against the ropes. Crolla stayed on his feet after taking the shot, but he had to cover up after Linares followed up with 5 consecutive head shots that all landed. It looked for a second like Linares was going to drop Crolla again, but he stayed on his feet. During the round, Linares hit Crolla with a belt line shot that caused him to react as if he had been hit low. I saw the punch clearly, and it was definitely a legal one. Never the less, the referee allowed Crolla to recover for a minute before letting the action resume. It looked to me like Crolla was hurt by a body shot, and he needed the break badly so that he could recover. He’s lucky that he had a referee that gave him the benefit of the doubt because not all referees would do that. If they see a legal body shot, they’re not going to let the action stop like Foster did.
Crolla showed very little energy to win the fight in the 12th round, as he wasn’t coming forward like he had in the previous rounds. It was Linares that was initiating all the action and looking sensational in doing so.