CROLLA LAUDS MIRACLE WORLD TITLE
ANTHONY CROLLA spent last Christmas fearing he would never fight again. This year he will celebrate as a world champion. Eleven months ago, he suffered a fractured skull and broken ankle after his pursuit of two burglars was halted by a concrete block dropped on his head. Then in July, he was the victim of another injustice when the judges scandalously scored his first fight against Darleys Perez a draw. But in Saturday night’s rematch, Crolla took matters into his own hands. After a nip-and-tuck opening four rounds, he crunched his left fist into Perez’s ribs, leaving the Colombian on the canvas. That it was a shot once the trademark of Manchester’s favourite boxing son, Ricky ‘Hitman’ Hatton, was not lost on the victor. ‘It wasn’t that long ago that I was paying to watch him in this arena,’ said Crolla. ‘I delivered a shot he’d be proud of. ‘I knew when I landed it that he was hurt. I was counting and I thought: “He’s not getting up”. It’s the sweetest body shot I’ve ever thrown.’ In the immediate messy aftermath of last year’s incident, Crolla’s first thought was that he could recover in time for his scheduled world title fight against Richar Abril just five weeks later. That he recovered to lace up his gloves at all was something of a miracle. But he said: ‘I honestly never once gave up hope. When I was in hospital, I made a promise to come back better than ever because I knew how close I’d come to everything being taken away from me. ‘It’s been a tough year for us all.’ Meanwhile, Martin Murray’s plea for a rematch after yet another narrow world title defeat is likely to fall on deaf ears. Arthur Abraham, the splitdecision winner of Saturday night’s supermiddleweight battle, is committed to a mandatory defence of his WBO crown in the spring of next year. He will then look to move on to a championship unification fight, possibly against James DeGale if the Londoner holds on to his IBF belt against Lucian Bute in Canada next weekend. Murray was so angered by what he considered a hometown verdict that television censored his initial four-letter outburst. Once he composed himself the St Helens road warrior joined his promoter, Barry Hearn, in trying to coax Abraham into a return. Hearn promised to ‘put up a load of money’ to tempt King Arthur ‘to prove himself the great champion he is’ by venturing out of his German fortress for a fight in Manchester, which would be Murray’s fifth attempt to win a world title. Britain’s world champions: James DeGale (IBF supermiddleweight), Liam Smith (WBO light-middleweight), Kell Brook (IBF welterweight), Anthony Crolla (WBA lightweight), Terry Flanagan (WBO lightweight), Lee Selby (IBF featherweight), Scott Quigg (WBA super-bantamweight), Carl Frampton (IBF superbantamweight), Jamie McDonnell (WBA bantamweight), Lee Haskins (IBF bantamweight).