Linares beats Crolla again to keep WBA lightweight belt

Crolla and Linares both weighed in within the limit on Friday, with the home fighter marginally the heavier at 9st 8lb 7oz. Showtime will be doing the broadcast from its studios in NY. “I would love that fight, and I know Jorge would”, Garcia said, speculating that the bout would be fought in the summer barring any injury.

Linares has returned to Manchester and will defend the 135-pound title against Crolla in a rematch at Manchester Arena, same site as the first bout, on Saturday (Showtime, 6 p.m. ET), but with an eye to bigger fights down the road.

He further states Flanagan, who is scheduled to fight Russian star Petr Petrov on April 8, is struggling to sell tickets for that showdown while his client sold 4,000 all by himself for the fight against Linares.

Being kind to Crolla you’d say he was courageous to the end but simply succumbed to the genius of a man who made him pay a heavy price for every single mistake he made, no matter how small.

And he said of producing a victory on Saturday against 31-year-old Linares (41-3, 27 KO wins), who has held world titles at three different weights: “People have said “you’ll never get that night back, of winning the world title”, but then it got better when I defended it against Ismael Barroso”. “He’s been in there with some of the best, so it would be a great matchup”.

Anthony Crolla is not ruling out the possibility of moving up to light-welterweight after his second defeat to Jorge Linares. I believe there will be plenty of big fights out there for me. That is only my fault – I didnt want to let people down but I should have been concentrating on other things.

“There is talk about the Terry Flanagan fight”, said Hearn.

The Mancunian must first get past the hard test of Petr Petrov on April 8, but should he do that he is eager to clash with Linares for the chance to win another belt. Linares had Crolla on the canvas in the seventh round but the British fighter showed great determination and grit to last the 12-round distance.

“It’s going to make me bite down on that gumshield even harder tomorrow (Saturday) to make sure those belts stay in Manchester“. “It means so much to me”. “The upper cut with which I overcame Crolla, was handsome”. I have been training since January 10 of this year, kicking off my training camp in Okinawa, Japan.

“Still doing it on my own”.

“I understand what Joe was saying and I think in the past I have been a bit stupid.

“There’re going to be times in the fight where I might have to weather a storm and I’ve got to bite down on that gumshield but that’s something I’m willing to do, I’m willing to dig deeper than ever before”.