Former World Lightweight Champion Anthony Crolla breaks down and predicts Nick Ball’s first defence of his WBA Featherweight World Title against Ronny Rios.
Well boxing can give you the most incredible highs, but also horrendous lows and the latter is how it’s felt since my fighter Rhiannon Dixon lost her world title in Sheffield last weekend.
It was an absolute sickener. Rhiannon had a bad night and Terri Harper had a good night. Everything that was going so well in camp didn’t happen on the night. It’s a tough one to take, Rhiannon’s gone away for a break with her partner and when she gets back, we’ll have a chat and work out how to get her world title back.
You have to give credit to Terri and her team and hopefully we’ll get the rematch and have a chance to put things right. If we don’t get that fight, we’ll go down a different route.
If it wasn’t bad enough being on the losing side of the fight on Saturday night, the following day got worse! We couldn’t leave Sheffield as we failed to get out of the city before the roads were all closed off for a huge 10k race. Eventually I did get back to Manchester only to watch United get thumped by Spurs! Talk about rubbing salt into the wound!
Moving on to this Saturday’s action, I’m really excited about going to see Nick Ball in against Ronny Rios in Liverpool. Nick has a real claim to be the best fighter in British boxing right now. When you look at his last few fights, he’s won a world title against a world class opponent in Ray Ford, and he should’ve got the decision when it was deemed a draw against Rey Vargas.
It’s been a great rise and his coach Paul Stevenson and the team at Everton Red Triangle Boxing club deserve a lot of credit. I think Nick will look very good again and get the job done with a late stoppage.
There’s another great fight on the card with Jack Rafferty and Henry Turner fighting for the British and Commonwealth super lightweight titles. I say it all the time, but it’s very rare you see a poor British title fight.
It’s so hard to predict this fight. In Henry you’ve got someone with lovely skills, he’s a sharp southpaw, but Jack is known as the demolition man and it’s a nickname that suits him. He applies pressure well, is very strong at the weight and he hits hard. It’s a great contrast of styles and I’m struggling to give any kind of prediction at this stage. It’s the kind of fight where I need to have a good look at them at the weigh-in. I might be just leaning towards Jack, but I am tempted to sit on the fence!
Also on the card is Andrew Cain. I really like him, and I thought he was very impressive against Ashley Lane last time out. I think he’s a great prospect and reckon he’s got an excellent chance of becoming another scouse world champion.
I expect Cain to look good again against the tough Colombian Lazaro Casseres. I think he’ll find a way through and get an impressive stoppage around the half-way point of the fight.
There are a few prospects on the bill to keep an eye out for. There’s another Fury in action – Walter this time. Also, Joe Cooper who is another exciting young fighter. And I’m very keen to have another look at an extremely talented young Cuban, Jadier Herrera. He’s trained by Joe McNally and Declan O’Rourke at the Rotunda Gym in Liverpool.
They’re looking at moving Jadier very fast as he has unbelievable skills but is also very spiteful. I expect him to have far too much for his opponent Oliver Flores and am backing him to claim his 14th stoppage win in 16 fights.
Anthony Crolla is a brand ambassador for Freebets.com, the home of betting sites.
