CHOUX TIME
Crolla looking forward to cake treat after final fight
ANTHONY CROLLA will wake up tomorrow, grab a coffee and some cake then go to his son’s football training.
Normal life will resume hours after he hangs up his gloves at Manchester Arena tonight.
Crolla, 32, brings down the curtain on his career with a clash against Spaniard Frank Urquiaga in his 45th and final fight.
It has been a rollercoaster of a career which reached its peak when he lifted the WBA lightweight title by beating Darleys Perez then defended it against the odds by beating Ismael Barroso.
The Manchester man, who many thought would never get past British level, reached the top of the world and became a hero in his home city. He even got the chance to take on one of the very best in Vasyl Lomachenko.
“I won’t get up too early as I’m sure there’ll be a party after the fight,” said Crolla as he looked ahead to the next big step.
“I’ll have a sleep in but then I will go to a coffee shop and have a coffee and a cake, before taking my little boy to football practice.
“It will feel different for a while, it will be tough. The hunger will never leave me but I will have to get other joys out of boxing.”
It is fitting Crolla will finish his career at the venue where he started out as a professional in 2006. There have been plenty who have been on the journey with him since he beat Abdul Rashid on that night. “One of my friends hasn’t missed any of my last 44 fights, my best mate, Rob,” said Crolla. “I think he’s happy that it’s all over because of the money he has had to spend over the years!” The high for Crolla was not beating Perez to become champion but defending the belt against Barroso (left) when he was expected to lose.
“To be introduced by Michael Buffer as a world champion and to go out still as a world champion, that was probably my best night,” he said.
Tonight is the final farewell and for the first time his son Jesse, six, will see his dad fight.
“I hope he sticks to the football,” said Crolla, who plans to focus on being a trainer when he retires.
“I don’t want to be back here in 15 years doing his corner at Manchester Arena.”