Britain’s Anthony Crolla became the World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champion on Saturday less than a year after suffering a fractured skull from being hit on the head with a concrete slab in a brutal street assault.
Crolla was attacked while chasing a burglar away from his neighbor’s home in Greater Manchester in December last year.
Having regained fitness, he was denied a world title in July when his first fight with Darleys Perez was declared a draw.
Photo: AP
However, in front of his home town crowd at the Manchester Arena, Crolla’s powerful body shot saw the 29-year-old stop his Colombian rival with 30 seconds of the fifth round left in their rematch.
Perez fell to the canvas and failed to beat the count, to the joy of Crolla’s supporters.
“It’s been an absolute roller-coaster the last 12 months and this is the perfect finish,” Crolla told Sky Sports afterward.
“It’s a dream come true... I thought it would be a head shot [that won the fight], but I’ll take that body shot any day of the week. I remember sinking the left in downstairs and, like most people who land a good body shot, I knew it was over there and then,” he said.
ABRAHAM V MURRAY
Arthur Abraham retained his World Boxing Organization (WBO) super middleweight belt with a split decision win over Martin Murray of England on Saturday night.
Two judges awarded it 115-112, 116-111 in favor of the Armenian-born German, while one scored it 115-112 to Murray, who was the busier fighter throughout, producing more body shots and forcing Abraham on the back foot for long periods.
Between rounds, Abraham’s coach Ulli Wegner pleaded with his fighter to “do more.”
The defending champ improved, catching Murray with a huge right in the seventh round. Murray returned the favor in the next, when Abraham did well to make the bell, but the challenger’s hopes took a blow in the 11th when he had a point deducted for holding with Abraham in the ascendancy.
“He was a world-class boxer, he was a sandbag, but we were better tactically and combatively,” said Abraham, who improved to 44-4 — with 29 knockouts — after defending his title for the fifth time.
Murray dropped to 32-3-1 with 15 knockouts.
The bout took place amid increased security measures following the attacks in Paris on Nov.13 and the threat of attacks that caused the cancelation of Germany’s soccer friendly with the Netherlands in Hannover on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by AP
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