By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA lightweight belt holder Anthony Crolla (33-6-3, 13 KOs) looked old tonight in winning a controversial 10 round unanimous decision over little known Mexican fighter Edson Ramirez (18-2-1, 8 KOs) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
The scores were like ones that came from judges watching an entirely different fight from the one that took place tonight. The judges had the 31-year-old Crolla winning 100-91, 100-90 and 98-92. Boxing News 24 scored it in Ramirez’s favor by 7 rounds to 3. Crolla appeared to win rounds 3, 4 and 10.
The remainder of the rounds were clear Ramirez rounds with him nailing Crolla with hard body shots. At worst, you could call it a draw, but definitely not a win for Crolla. He looked faded tonight like a fighter that had lost a couple of steps from the guy he used to be two years ago.
I had Ramirez up 5 rounds to 2 after 7 rounds. Crolla wasn’t doing enough to win the rounds, and he was getting blasted to the body. Ramirez was given 2 warnings from the referee for landing body shots that he felt were low. I saw clean body shots. In the 8th, the referee stopped the action to give Ramirez a warning for throwing a low blow. It wasn’t low though. It was a legal body shot. At the time the referee interrupted the action, Ramirez had Crolla pinned to the ropes and he was working him over with huge shots to the midsection. The timing of the referee stopping the action to warn Ramirez worked in Crolla’s favor. It saved Crolla from taking more punishment.
Crolla was cut over his right eye earlier in the fight in the 3rd round. The referee let the fight go on with Crolla bleeding and looking in bad shape.
As shot as Crolla looked tonight, it’ll be interesting to see what Matchroom Boxing head honcho Eddie Hearn does with him in his next fight. Does he feed him to Lewis Ritson (15-0, 9 KOs) or Luke Campbell next? Crolla couldn’t even beat a 2nd tier fighter in Edson Ramirez without controversy. If Hearn matches Crolla against Riston or Campbell, I see it ending badly for him. Crolla is rated #2 by the World Boxing Association, and he’s won 2 out of his last 4 fights. Crolla looks more like a bottom feeder to me, a lucky bottom feeder, who keeps getting controversial decisions given to him. Crolla got lucky in his last fight against Ricky Burns and now he gets lucky again tonight. Sooner or later, the judges will get it right and Crolla will start losing again.
I had Crolla losing 4 of his last 4 fights. Crolla beat Ricky Burns by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision last October, defeated Ramirez by a controversial 10 round decision tonight, and then lost twice to Jorge Linares. We’re talking journeyman here. Crolla is starting to look like a journeyman, with his career being kept alive with controversial decisions. I say put Crolla in with Campbell or Riston and let’s see how he does against those guys, who probably won’t let the judges have a say in the outcome.
In other results on tonight’s card in Cardiff, welterweight prospect Josh Kelly (6-0, 4 KOs) beat past his prime former junior middleweight world champion Carlos Molina (28-9-2, 8 KOs) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 99-91. Molina has been looking like a shot fighter since 2013. I have no idea why Hearn matched Kelly against Molina. Kelly should be facing quality opposition, not journeyman at this point in his career.
2016 Olympian Joshua Buatsi (6-0, 4 KOs) defeated an over-matched journeyman opponent Bartolmiej Grafka (20-29-3, 9 KOs) by a six round decision.