One definition of a ‘fairy tale’ is and I quote, “a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending”.

I am gutted right now because last Saturday,  Manchester boxer Anthony ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla got denied his own fairy tale story.  This man widely dubbed as the ‘nicest guy in boxing’,  deserved to become the WBA Lightweight Champion of the World that night but instead he got denied by poor judging.  The roof of the Manchester Arena should have been blown off by joyous Mancunian celebrating his unbelievable win. Rather, bitterness, injustice and a sense of what might have been filled the air.  The hardest of sport of them all seems all the much harder to bear on nights like this.

For those who are unaware, Anthony Crolla is the boxer who hit the headlines last Christmas time after confronting two burglars in his next door neighbours back garden.  After giving chase and cornering the two culprits events then took a dramatic and devastating turn.  One of them on Anthony’s blindside hit him over the head with a slab of concrete.  As they fled away Anthony staggered back home in shock and was later rushed into hospital.  He was later diagnosed with a fractured skull and had broken his right ankle in two places.

In the immediate aftermath of this shocking incident his general well being as a person was at the forefront everybody’s mind, never mind if he was going to get well enough to ever box again.  On January 23rd 2015 he was due to fight for the WBA world lightweight title against Champion Richard Abril.  This one random act of heroism cost Anthony his dream of fighting for that world title.

Anthony’s health and injuries began to improve and slowly but surely he started making steady progress. He dreamed of being able to fight for that world title, the chance that so cruelly got taken away from him months before.  After Anthony got the all clear from the various doctors promoter Eddie Hearn managed to get him another crack at the WBA world lightweight title. His comeback fight was going to be in his hometown of Manchester on July 18th, against highly rated new champion Darleys Perez.

I am a massive Crolla fan primarily due to him living about two miles from me.  I also love his Manchester trainer Joe Gallagher.  Both sound like stereotypical Mancunians and as a fellow Manc, I proudly love this about them.  Nevertheless, I have to be honest and say that I thought Anthony might be just come up short in this world title bid. I badly wanted him to win of course but I just thought his extended time out of the ring might just catch-up with eventually.  I am a massive UFC fan and I have seen ring rust badly effect multiple fighters who have made a comeback after many months out of the cage.  I also thought the magnitude of the occasion might get to him a bit.  This is a guy who thought at one point thought he might never be able to box again.  Coming out to twenty-thousand cheering Mancunians could easily get to him I thought.

My concerns about the emotion of the occasion getting to Crolla were completely misplaced has it happens. I was also wrong to think he should have had a warm-up fight first to shed off any ring rust that he may have had. Crolla gave an absolute brilliant performance againt Perez.  Admittedly, Perez won the first round and look very menacing I thought. Then it all changed in the second round when near the end of the round Crolla caught him with an absolute peach of a shot.  Perez’s legs did that ‘funky chicken dance’ and he was momentarily hurt without a shadow of a doubt.

The rest of the fight was an enthralling one.  To me and to all of the commentators who were watching it ringside, it seemed one that Crolla was definitely edging.  His work rate was far superior to Perez’s.  He seemed to have all the momentum in the contest. Perez on the other hand seemed lacklustre, tired and void of many ideas. His superior punching power and ring nous always kept him in the contest but anybody could see that Crolla was winning the fight.  With Perez having two points deducted for illegal low blows then it seemed even more clear to everybody that Crolla won be soon be crowned the new world champion.  When the final bell went I was cheering loudly from the armchair because I knew Crolla had won.  I tweeted earlier in the week that if Crolla won then his story would be made into a Hollywood blockbuster.  I was so happy that he was going to be part of such a wonderful modern day fairy tale. Manchester was getting ready to celebrate wildly with him.

I had this dreaded feeling something was up after main commentator Nick Halling suggested something might be, going off some of the facial expressions in the ring post fight. This sick feeling in my stomach was compounded when the judges scorecards were read out. The first one gave it 116-111 Crolla. The second 114-113 Perez. The third gave it 113-113 and so a ‘majority draw’ was the final result, thus Perez remained the champion.  I was truly flabbergasted and astonished at what I was seeing and hearing.  Boos loudly rang out around the Manchester Arena from fans who were equally as disgusted as me.  In the post-fight interviews I thought Matchroom Sports promoter Eddie Hearn summed it up perfectly.  He said it was not a robbery because it was a relatively close fight, however if you factor in the two points deducted for the low blows then clearly Crolla won that fight by two or three rounds.

I was so gutted for the ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla.  He is one of life’s good guys and after a hellish year he so deserved the judges to have got the scoring right.  He deserves to be the new WBA lightweight champion of the world and the fact that he is not is hard to take.  They say sport can be unfair at times and so never was this more the case than on last Saturday night.  Crolla is a champion all but in name however for two reasons.  One, for what he did for his neighbour, and then two for remarkably getting himself fit enough to fight again.  I just hope his story does not play out the same way as it did for his stablemate Paul Smith Jnr. Paul a super-middleweight also trained my Joe Gallagher, deserved to win his first title fight against Champion Arthur Abraham. He too was on the wrong end of poor judging in my opinion.  In the rematch however Abraham was better prepared and decisively won it. I just hope if he gets the rematch against Darleys Perez then Crolla does not suffer the same fate.  I definitely think Perez took Crolla too lightly.  I am gutted for you Crolla but take a bow son, you truly deserve to be the champ and could not have done anything more.  Just like the star you are, you left it all in the ring mate.

In stark contrast, the night for Bury boxer Scott Quigg, was one of extreme jubilation. Quigg, the WBA Regular Super Bantamweight champion successfully defended his belt against former world champion Kiko Martinez.  Spaniard Martinez is a former world champion and was widely seen as Quigg’s toughest opponent to date. Some even thought that he would be too much for Quigg. For example, Carl Frampton’s trainer Shane McGuigan predicted pre-fight that Kiko was all wrong for Quigg and that he would defeat him.  Carl Frampton being the IBF World Super Bantamweight champion and Quigg’s biggest rival.

The first round did worry me slightly from a Quigg fan perspective.  Quigg did not really throw any meaningful punches at Kiko and so we had the latter constantly coming forward at Quigg in a menacing manner.  It looked like this could indeed be a testing night for Quigg, only for him then to hit Kiko with a power bomb of an uppercut that rocked Martinez right down to the bottom of his boots.  Seeing he had Kiko in trouble Quigg then quickly seized all over him and duly landed a first knockdown. A clearly shaken Kiko got back to his feet in time but after another devastating onslaught by Quigg, it was GOODNIGHT VIENNA as they say(not exactly sure who says that though).

What a win for Quigg that was. Definitely his best career performance to date.  The stunned crowd went crazy too, it seemed an amazing atmosphere.  I hope after this performance Scott Quigg now gets some much deserved respect from the boxing fans who had previously doubted his talent as a boxer.  Whilst he was giving this amazing performance on SKY SPORTS, Carl Frampton struggled on his debut fight in America shown on ITV1.  If they do ever fight one another then after last weekend the purse split has to be a straight down the line fifty/fifty one now.  Frampton could never get away with  seeking a seventy/thirty one now, as it was reported he allegedly demanded last time.  This weekend saw the stock of Scott Quigg rise and I am pleased for him. I have since heard his next fight could be a cracker against ‘The Filipino Flash’ Nonito Donaire.  Donaire is a massive name in the sport and former world champion in two different weight divisions.

Other bouts on the main televised card featured Tyrone Nurse v Chris Jenkins for the British light-welterweight title, and Sam Eggington v Glenn Foot for the British and Commonwealth welterweight titles.  The first mentioned fight ended in a draw some how. I say some how because Nurse should have won the fight.  He seemed the one with the higher skill-set and there seemed to be more left in the tank from him when it was over.  In fairness to him though I did think he just nicked the fight, nevertheless it should never have been that close. Nurse should have pushed for a bigger victory thus making sure the judges could not get it wrong.  I have seen him a couple of times now and he has the potential to be better than just fighting at domestic level. He just has to have a higher work rate and not coast as much in fights.

The second bout was deemed a real fifty/fifty one but in reality it was a one sided dominant display by the ever improving young Eggington. Foot being the shorter and more stocky, was never able to get past the long reach of Eggington.  Eggington completely picked him apart and he is definitely one to keep your eye on.

The other televised bout was a bit of a borefest.  It featured St.Helens super-middleweight Martin Murray in a eight round warm-up fight against Mirzet Bajrektarevic from Croatia.  I am not sure what Murray gained from this contest because his opponent did not offer much back.  I think my window cleaner could have beat this Croatian dude so it was of no great shame when the referee stopped it somewhat prematurely. Bigger and tougher tests await for Murray in the near future.  He does look more of a natural super-middleweight to me, one has to think cutting down to middleweight must have impacted on his performances some how in the past.

Overall, it was a great nights viewing.  Quigg’s performance was amazing and Crolla was brilliant too, just so gutting that he did not get the win that he so richly deserved. The thing that sticks out the most though is the music that Anthony Crolla walked out too.  It was so emotional and inspiring to see him walking out to’Hometown Glory’ by Adele.  It was like Anthony’s way of saying thank to the people of Manchester for all of the support they had given him over those very dark few months. He loves the City of Manchester. I just hope one day soon he gets to become world champion……….AND IF SO, IT WOULD BE THE BEST FAIRY TALE THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN!