Last night I went to bed gutted that Manchester’s very likeable Anthony ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla, failed in his rematch with Jorge Linares, for the WBA, WBC Diamond and Ring Magazine Lightweight World Championships.  There wasn’t any hard luck story here with inspirational Crolla, because Venezuelan Linares gave an absolutely imperious performance, rightly winning 118-109 on all three of the judges scorecards.  To put it quite simply, Linares was just too good!

Given Crolla’s amazing backstory(once confronted two robbers who almost ended his career, to then becoming world champion), then it is very easy to like this everyday type of guy.  Crolla is a credit to the sport of boxing which has been through the mill of late with regards to bad publicity. e.g. David Haye’s ill advised comments towards Tony Bellew.  Crolla is boxing’s ‘Mr Nice Guy’ and so my heart was ruling my head before his second bout with Linares took place.  Linares was favourite beforehand but Crolla had revelled numerous times in the past playing the role of the underdog.  Could his fairy tale of a story have yet even more gold dust sprinkled on top of it I wondered?

The Manchester Arena was full of thousands of Crolla adoring Mancunians, as they cheered on their local hero to get his revenge.  Instead, what they got was an absolute masterclass by Linares.  Their first fight was close ish but with Linares rightly ending up the worthy winner.  However, this time around it was like Crolla’s beloved mighty Manchester United(Linares) taking on minnows Accrington Stanley(Crolla), the gulf in class and skill was that huge.

At the start of the fight, Linares, straight away this time displayed his amazing fast hand speed and slick movement around the ring.  Crolla kept coming forward but was unable to almost lay a glove on him. Crolla wanted to be more forceful but Linares did not allow him to be so.  Boxing has long been dubbed ‘The Sweet Science’ and this was in plenty of evidence last night with Linares.  He is a true artisan of the sport and has to be up there as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world right now.

Crolla never stopped trying though as he once again showed the massive size of both his heart and kahunas.  The Manchester crowd continued to cheer their hometown hero on but it was all in vain given the excellence of Linares.  At the end of the eleventh round Crolla’s trainer Joe Gallagher, nearly pulled him out of the fight but Crolla pleaded with him quite rightly, that he be allowed to continue which indeed he did.  At the end of the final bell there was a resigned and depressed nature with the crowd.  They knew their hero had been given a boxing lesson and could have no complaints at having to witness his jubilant opponent celebrating with his team.  Crolla remains a hero of the British public though and has nothing to feel sorry for as he later apologised for letting the fans down.  Crolla let nobody down and will hopefully come again in easier battles ahead!

Just wanted to finish this review with a critique of the TV coverage of this event.  Firstly, I thought Adam Smith and in particular Carl Froch, did great jobs in terms of being the commentator and analyst.  Every time I hear Froch do the boxing on Sky Sports then he continues to get better and better in my view. His comments are always very insightful and because of who he is, his words carry a certain gravitas with them like nobody else’s do.

My only slight criticism of the production was Sky Sports new face of boxing, presenter Anna Woolhouse.  She wasn’t horrendous but in two events now she has irked me a little.  She is too over enthusiastic which then makes her delivery come across as a bit fake.  I was a big fan of the previous presenter Ed Robinson and don’t understand why he has been removed from this role?  I am sure Anna will improve in time though and before I get accused of being sexist here, I thought fellow female presenter Kate Abdo was better and her delivery more natural when she did the odd boxing event on Sky Sports!

All-in-all then, a sad night for the Crolla faithful(me included) but one where you just had to stand up and applaud the greatness of his opponent Jorge Linaries, what a MARVELLOUS performance it really was!