This Saturday, fight
fans will be treated to a real 50/50 fight as Anthony ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla
defends his WBA lightweight title against Venezuela’s very own, Ismael Barroso.
This is Crolla’s first defence of his title and is arguably his toughest fight
to date hence the appropriately named title of the event, ‘Danger Zone’.
Anthony Crolla is one
of the most likeable fighters on the circuit and his world title dreams were realised
when he knocked-out Darleys Perez with the Joe Gallagher special, a wicked left
hook to the body, back in November.
Not many would have
seen Crolla as a future world champion when he lost to Derry Matthews and Gary
Sykes within a year and with the outside the ring assault back in 2014 his
career looked in pieces. However with the guidance of Eddie Hearn he managed to
manoeuvre himself to face arguably the weakest champion in Perez who himself
had been promoted from the interim title to full world champion in the
boardroom.
Now Crolla must take on
knock-out artist Ismael Barroso, a man who made a huge statement the first time
he fought on British soil when he emphatically knocked-out and ended the career
of Kevin Mitchell. Southpaw, Barroso is the dark horse in the division and can
certainly be put in boxing’s ‘who needs him’ category. The Venezuelan has
sickening one-punch-power and it could be that Crolla is in for a very long
night.
I doubt this is a fight
that Hearn and Gallagher would have wanted for Crolla in his first defence, however,
due to mandatory obligations Crolla was either forced to take the fight or
vacate the belt, something he was clearly not planning to do. It is hard to say
whether Manchester boy, Crolla, is truly an elite level fighter however one
thing is for certain and that is the whole of the UK will be behind this very
popular fighter.
This is certainly a
good test for both fighters. It is likely that Barroso will need a knock-out
considering the way the UK scorecards have been in recent months and in my
opinion he will deliver the goods. Although Mitchell was way past his best he
was still a B-level fighter and Barroso took him apart. It is my prediction
that Barroso will also be too strong for Crolla however it is a really intriguing
fight which could go either way.
Prediction:
Barroso KO
Tom Eckett
@boxingguru44
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