WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares won’t be rushing things out when he comes face-to-face with WBA lightweight titlist Anthony Crolla this Saturday at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Linares is defending his title for the third time since his KO win against Javier Prieto in 2014 while Crolla is putting his WBA lightweight title on the line in a battle for the lightweight supremacy in boxing. The 31-year-old Venezuelan lightweight king is now aiming for his 10th straight win since his TKO loss to Sergio Thompson in 2012. Linares is coming off a knockout win over Ivan Cano of Mexico last year. After his loss to Antonio de Marco in 2011 and to Thompson the following year, Linares has improved tremendously as he won over seven out of his nine opponents by way of knockout. On Saturday, Linares won’t go for an early knockout win against Crolla as what his compatriot Ismael Barroso did when he challenged the Briton last May. Barroso paid dearly for what he did as he got knocked out by Crolla in the seventh round. ?Ismael is a very good fighter but he made a big mistake in the fight,? said Linares. ?He came out too strong and too fast and too aggressive, trying to KO Anthony, and when you are at this level, you cannot go looking for the KO because when you do that, you end up receiving the KO, and that’s what happened,” he added. Linares, who has served as sparring partner of eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao is confident he will continue to rule the lightweight division with a win over Crolla on Saturday. The 29-year-old Manchester native enjoys the advantage of fighting in front of his hometown crowd and on Saturday he is equally confident he will prevail over the Venezuelan lightweight king. “He likes to fight at his pace and I can’t allow that. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ve got to take advantage of some weaknesses that I think I’ve seen there. I’m confident I can do that,” said Crolla, who hasn’t lost since his split decision defeat against Gary Sykes in 2012. “I’ve got to be switched on from the opening bell. He’s a very good counter-puncher, so I know I can’t be lazy at any stage. But I genuinely believe I’ll have an answer for whatever he shows me,” he added. Both fighters are almost evenly matched. Linares is 31 while Crolla is 29 years old. Crolla stands 5’9″ and Linares is an inch shorter at 5’8.” They’re both orthodox fighters.
