Anthony Crolla decisions Daud Yordan – RESULTS

By Boxing News - 11/10/2018 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Former World Boxing Association lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (34-6-3, 13 KOs) defeated Daud Yordan (38-4, 26 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in a WBA 135 lb title eliminator to earn a title shot against champion Vasyl Lomachenko on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

There’s a lot of money for Crolla to make in a fight against Lomachenko. If Crolla can solve the Lomachenko puzzle, he could see some really big money in future fights against the likes of Mikey Garcia on pay-per-view. That’ where it gets really interesting. But first Crolla needs to somehow beat the highly skilled two-time Olympic gold medalist Lomachenko before he can start thinking of bigger fights.

Crolla vs. Yordan was the chief support for the Oleksander Usyk vs. Tony Bellew card on Sky Box Office and DAZN.

The judges scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Boxing News 24 scored it for Crolla by a 117-111 score. Crolla outworked and outboxed the 31-year-old Yordan to lock himself in as the WBA mandatory challenger to Lomachenko.

It was far from a dominating performance by the 31-year-old Crolla. He was getting hit a lot by a fighter that was basically plodding forward with his head down, throwing body and head shots. Crolla was able to tie Yordan up, hit him with body shots, and bag heads with him.

In rounds 9 through 12, Yordan looked to be the busier fighter, and he was able to land more shots in that part of the fight than he had earlier. Never the less, by that point in the fight, Crolla was well ahead in the fight, and Yordan needed knockdowns or a knockout to get a victory.

“I’m never going to be disrespectful enough to call out Vasyl Lomachenko,” said Crolla to Sky Sports after the fight. “I would love to have it [Lomachenko fight]. This is my hometown and a very special arena to me.”

Crolla’s performance tonight wasn’t the type that would suggest that he’s going to beat Lomacheno. Crolla didn’t look improved from his two losses to Jorge Linares from 2016 to 2017. Although Crolla has now won his last three fights in beating Ricky Burns, Edson Ramirez and Yordan, he hasn’t shown the type of talent that will give Lomachenko any problems. Lomachenko recently beat Linares by a 10th round knockout last May. It stands to reason if Lomachenko was able to beat a fighter that twice defeated Crolla in Linares, then he’ll have no problems beating him as well.

Crolla likely would have lost tonight if he had been facing a better lightweight like Rances Barthelemy, Robert Easter Jr., Devin Haney, Francesco Patera or Teofimo Lopez. Crolla was fortunate that the WBA had Yordan highly ranked rather than a Linares, Haney or Lopez. Haney and Lopez are young lions with amazing talent that would be a nightmare for an aging fighter like Crolla.

Other boxing results on tonight’s Usyk-Bellew card at the Manchester Arena:

Ricky ‘Rickster’ Burns (43-7-1, 16 KOs) defeated Scott Cardle (23-3-1, 7 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout. Burns, 35, knocked Cardle down with a right to the head. The fight was then halted by referee Mark Lyson. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:06 of round 3. The victory for Burns was his second straight since his close 12 round unanimous decision loss Anthony Crolla last year in October. The former three division world champion Burns showed that he can beat domestic level opposition like former British lightweight champion Cardle, who came into the fight having lost two out of his last four fights. Burns didn’t look quite as good as Lewis Ritson did in stopping Cardle in the 2nd round last March. However, Ritson was beaten in his last fight against Francesco Patera by a 12 round split decision on October 13.