Saturday afternoon US time, the British television audience (and American streamers) will be treated to one of the bigger fights that can be made in the UK when former world titleholders Anthony Crolla and Ricky Burns meet in Manchester on Sky Sports.
Ricky Burns (41-6-1, 14 KOs) has been on world level for quite a bit longer than Anthony Crolla (31-6-3, 13 KOs). The Scottish pro won his first belt, a junior lightweight title, in 2010 via a highly competitive decision over Rocky Martinez after coming off the deck in the first round. He has also won and defended belts at lightweight and junior welterweight, adding himself to the growing but still elite three weight titleholder club. Along the way he has been given some annoyingly easy fights, won some cards maybe he shouldn’t have, and has been written off a few times, but Ricky Burns has always come roaring back. Most recently he did so in 2015 against Omar Figueroa. He went into that fight considered past it in against a top young fighters up in weight. He left as the man who should have won.
Can he do it again? In April, Burns and his team thought maybe they could poach an easy second junior welterweight title from surprise, unknown Namibian world title holder Julius Indongo. This backfired as he was thoroughly trounced over twelve rounds. Really he wasn’t competitive for a full minute in that fight. Dropping back to lightweight here, Burns will be going for yet another redemption.
Anthony Crolla has gone an entirely different route. For most of his career, Crolla has been a domestic level British fighter. He is 0-1-1 against Derry Mathews, for example. Perhaps more damningly, Crolla has even lost twice to Gary Sykes, though one was a Prizefighter three rounder.
It was the second fight with Mathews, however, that began shifting things. That fight was for the WBA belt. While Crolla didn’t win it, the draw was enough to get him another shot. He again got a draw, this time against Darleys Perez. The two rematched, however, and Crolla showed some power to dispatch Perez. The new titleholder was supposed to drop his belt pretty quickly against powerful challenger Ismael Barroso, but instead he employed a brave strategy in which he let the power punching Venezuelan tire himself out on an arms up defense before putting him down on body shots.
Next two fights with a talent Jorge Linares went how they were always going to go, but it should be noted that Crolla was at least somewhat more competitive than expected in their first fight. What those fights took out of the Englishman is part of the question here, but I don’t think it is a big part. Instead, the question here is what Burns has left at 36. Even a cat only gets so many lives. At their peaks, I would expect Ricky Burns to win a comfortable decision, but we are not there. Plus, Burns has to cut back down to a weight he hasn’t made in some time now.
All in all I think the signs point to an Anthony Crolla win here, but then again I have been wrong about Ricky Burns before. The truth will be revealed on Sky Sports on Saturday. Given Burns fading legs and Crolla’s steady style, I do think it will be a pretty watchable fight either way. Sam Eggington defends his European title in the co-feature.
