GUEST COLUMN
Linares is one of the best fighters to ever appear in Britain... and we’ll beat him this time
Joe Gallagher offers gripping insight into the training and tactics of Crolla
AT the first press conference I asked everybody to please leave the kid alone, get tickets from Matchroom, get them from the arena. After that we decided to take him to Barcelona, just to get him away from everybody and get everybody used to the idea that he’s not easily accessible in this camp.
We came back and everybody’s left him alone, we’ve been training at night, he’s had no social life, he’s not been to any Manchester United games. He’s had a fantastic camp and the results are showing.
We stressed at the press conference what an opportunity this is. Not many British fighters get an opportunity to fight for these belts, Anthony had one and he lost and he’s getting a second chance.
This is as good as a pay-per-view fight, with a good undercard, a massive ticket seller and it’s a fight that’s relevant in world boxing. The winner fights Mikey Garcia. Crolla has sold an unbelievable amount of tickets, he’s the biggest ticket-seller in the country.
I said to Anthony a few days ago that these last few days are just as important as the last 10 weeks, don’t get distracted, keep focused on what we’re doing, keep yourself chilled and get ready for fight night.
I took him out to Barcelona for about 10 days. It was enough just to let people know he’s locked away, it sort of broke it for people then.
The response in Manchester for this fight has been unbelievable, bigger than for any of Anthony’s other fights. Banners are everywhere, the radio shows are plugging it everywhere. There’s a real sense of everyone coming together and turning up at the arena and cheering Anthony on.
I think it’s lost on a lot of people just how good Linares is, he’s an exceptional fighter. He’s a four-time world champion at three different weights, and I think that’s lost on people. No offence to other fighters, but a lot’s made of these other fighters coming over and they haven’t achieved what Linares has. Errol Spence Jnr and Gennady Golovkin are two for example.
Linares deserves all the plaudits, we’re in for a huge fight, he’s an exceptional talent. To more casual fans, he seems to be more of a Darleys Perez or Ismael Barroso but he’s an absolute superstar.
The magnitude of the task for Anthony is huge. Last time, you have to remember, Anthony didn’t have the best camp. A week out from it, I was in Dallas with Liam Smith for the Canelo Alvarez fight. The weekend before that I was in London for Callum Smith. Anthony Crolla was left alone for 13 days, that’s paramount. This time I’ve been with him all the way through.
This fight, I think he just has to make tweaks and changes. Linares knows he can hurt Crolla and Crolla knows he can hurt Linares, I just feel it’s going to be a shootout. I think Linares will be coming for the knockout and I think he’ll be looking to try and do Crolla in six rounds. I can’t see this fight going the distance, I think it’ll all be done by nine rounds.
Lots of people have been in the gym and come away saying ‘I can’t put my finger on it but there’s something different about Anthony’. He’s trained, he’s studied, he’s analysed with me, we’ve worked on things, different punches, changed his game plan up a little bit. About two weeks ago Crolla had an unbelievable spar, everything just fell into place. It’s one of those moments that makes you feel giddy and you think ‘oh wow, he’s got it.’ I just wanted to pick him up, take him to the arena and put him in the ring there and then.
We wake up in the morning and watch Jorge Linares. We watch him on the pads and say ‘oh, let’s just roll over and let him have it,’ he has that effect, he just looks phenomenal. But we’ve seen his weaknesses and now we just need to expose them.
I also just want to thank everyone for the support they’ve shown Anthony, especially in Manchester.