Ismael Barroso

Anthony Colla and Ismael Barroso make weight

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crolla64By Scott Gilfoid: WBA lightweight world champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) successfully weighed in on Friday for his title defense against his mandatory challenger Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) this Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

The 29-year-old Crolla weighed in at 134.3lbs and looked like he always does at his weigh-ins. He looked more like an office worker than a fighter in contrast to Barroso. You’ve got to hope for Crolla’s sake that he brings more to the table than the way he looked at the weigh-in, because he didn’t look nearly as fierce as the powerful looking Barroso. After Crolla weighed in, he screeched to the crowd. I’m not sure what that was about.

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Ismael Barroso: I will win

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barroso44By Scott Gilfoid: WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) and the talented unbeaten challenger Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) met for their final press conference today for their fight this Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Barroso made it clear during the press conference that he’s tired of all this back and forth talking, and just wants to go out there and do the job on the 29-year-old Crolla and go home with his WBA title.

The Venezuelan born Barroso believes he’s the best fighter in the lightweight division and he’s ready to erase Crolla as the WBA champion as he would any other contender or champion in division.

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Ismael Barroso coming for Anthony Crolla’s scalp

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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.

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Crolla expecting toughest fight of his career against Barroso

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crolla124By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (34-4-3, 12 KOs) is really looking forward to his May 7 title defense against interim WBA champion Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) at the Manchester Arena in Manchester. UK. Crolla, 29, sees this fight as the toughest of his career and he’s ready for it.

Barroso just finished knocking out Crolla’s fellow countryman Kevin Mitchell last December in his 5th round knockout win. Crolla isn’t worried about Barroso jumping him in the same way because he feels he has the skills to stop him from doing that.

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Anthony Crolla: I’ve got to take Ismael Barroso out of his comfort zone

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crolla53By Scott Gilfoid: WBA lightweight champion Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) has a nearly impossible task ahead of him I defending his title in less than a month against his mandatory challenger Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) on May 7 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Crolla, 29, says he’s studied the hard hitting Barroso’s previous fights, and he’s spotted things in his style that he thinks he can exploit on 5/7 when he gets him inside the ring. Crolla isn’t saying what those things are unfortunately, He’s leaving it up to the boxing fans to guess what holes he’s seen in Barroso’s game that he thinks he can take advantage of.

In looking at Barroso’s last fight against Kevin Mitchell, I can’t see too many things he did wrong in that fight. I mean, I saw things that a fighter with a lot of punching power could take advantage of, to be sure.

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Martin Murray added to Crolla-Barroso card on 5/7

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murray3By Scott Gilfoid: #9 WBC super middleweight contender Martin Murray (32-3-1, 15 KOs) has been added to the May 7 card headlined by WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla vs. Ismael Barroso at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

The 33-year-old Murray’s opponent is still to be determined for the card. It’s not likely to be anyone good though because a big fight against former two-time world title challenger George Groves (22-3, 17 KOs) is in the works for the summer provided that Groves wins his next fight against David Brophy (16-0-1, 1 KOs) on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Charles Martin fight card next month on April 9 at the O2 Arena in Manchester, UK.

That’s considered to be a sure thing win for Gorves, and he can possibly mess that one up by getting beaten.

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Crolla: I’ve got the tools to beat Barroso

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crolla124By Scott Gilfoid: WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) faces what is pretty much an unbelievable task in defending his title against the unbeaten machine-like Ismael Barroso (19-0-1, 18 KOs) on May 7 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Crolla, 29, says he never considered giving up his WBA title in order to avoid the fight with the powerful Barroso.

Many boxing fans and experts felt that the smart move for Crolla would have been for him to give up his WBA title and bow to the talent of the more superior fighter in Barroso, but Crolla has stubbornly decided to go down with the ship potentially. He may live to regret it.
Crolla was extremely fortunate to win the WBA title in his last fight against Darleys Perez.

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Anthony Crolla vs. Ismael Barroso on May 7 in Manchester

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crolla53By Scott Gilfoid: Well, WBA lightweight world champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) received the bad news today that he is now scheduled to make his first defense 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 good fight for some of the boxing fans, but probably not so good for Crolla. It’s going to be an entertaining fight while it lasts, but I don’t see Crolla having any way of keeping Barroso off of him in this contest. Barroso is like glue that you just can’t get off of him no matter how hard you try.

There was no way of getting around this fight for the 29-year-old Crolla due to Barroso being the WBA mandatory challenger. It was either face Barroso and whatever comes of that fight or give up the title. Crolla obviously never considered vacating or letting the World Boxing Association strip him of the strap.

Crolla just won the WBA belt last November in scoring a miracle 5th round knockout over the hard hitting Darleys Perez in their rematch in Manchester. You can make a strong argument that Perez should have never had to fight Crolla a second time after he clearly beat him in their first contest in July of last year.

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

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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.

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Anthony Crolla vs. Ismael Barroso possible for May 7

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crolla2By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KOs) and interim WBA lightweight champion Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KOs) have a fight in the works for May 7 in the UK, according to Dan Rafael.

This is a fight that the 29-year-old Crolla has to get out of the way, as it’s a mandatory defense for Crolla. The only ways that Crolla could avoid the fight would be to fight one of the other lightweight champions in a unification match, give Barroso a step aside payment, or vacate the belt. Since it looks like none of those things is going to happen, Crolla is on course to face the power punching 33-year-old Barroso in May.

About the only thing positive for Crolla in the Barroso fight is that it looks like it’s going to be staged in the UK in front of Crolla’s fans. However, that does not mean it is going to help Crolla win.

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