Anthony Crolla scored a stunning 7th round stoppage over Ismael Barroso to retain his WBA Lightweight title at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The bout headlined a seven bout telecast on AWE.
Barroso raced out and set a fast pace over the first four rounds. Crolla was biding his time landing some good shots on the the middle of the ring and he started to take over on a fading Barroso towards the end of round five. In round six, Crolla began to hurt Barroso and the Venezuelan challenger started to break down and seemed spent as he walked to his corner. Crolla jumped on Barroso and landed a tremendous flurry of punches that put Barroso on the canvas for the ten count.
It was the second straight stunning knockout for Crolla on AWE–A Wealth of Entertainment as he won his title with a knockout over Darleys Perez in November.
Crolla is now 31-4-3 with 13 knockouts. Barroso is 19-1-2.
“What a day for boxing on AWE. Once again, AWE had a stellar show that was headlined by a great knockout by Anthony Crolla. We continue to put on exciting world title bouts and we should have some announcements about more great boxing action the coming months,” said AWE President, Charles Herring.
Shayne Singleton stopped Anwil Anwar in round eight of their ten round welterweight contest.
Singleton looked like he was going to make it a quick and easy night as he dropped Anwar in round one from a left hook. Anwar was able to steady himself and have success over the next handful of rounds by getting in some good right hands. With the fight being on an even level, Singleton landed a big left that sent Anwar down in round eight. Anwar was clearly hurt, and Singleton jumped all over him and the fight was quickly stopped at 1:37 of round right.
Singleton is now 23-1 with eight knockouts. Anwar is 22-6.
Martin Murray tuned up for a June 25 showdown with George Groves by stopping an overmatched Cedric Spera in a scheduled 8-round Super Middleweight bout.
Murray dropped Spera with a left to the body in round two and finished him off with hard right that sent Spera down and out at 1:47 of round two.
Murray is now 33-3-1 with 16 knockouts. Spera is 12-5.
Marcus Morrison scored a 2nd round stoppage over Jefferson De Souza in a scheduled 10-round Jr. Middleweight bout.
Morrison dropped De Souza with a left hook in round one and the bout was stopped in the 2nd.
Morrison is now 11-0. De Souza is now 16-2-2.
Hosea Burton scored a 4th round stoppage over Michal Ludwiczak in a scheduled 6-round light heavyweight bout.
Burton dropped Ludwiczak with a left hook in round three. Burton scored another knockdown from a left hook in round four and the fight was stopped shortly after at 2:58.
Burton is now 16-0. Ludwiczak is 13-4.
Tommy Coyle (22-3) won a decision over Reynaldo Mora (7-13-1) in a super lightweight bout via referee score of 59-55.
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Anthony Crolla staked his claim as the best Lightweight in the world as he knocked out Ismael Barroso inside seven rounds with a superb performance in the first defence of his WBA World title at the Manchester Arena, live on Sky Sports.
Crolla and trainer Joe Gallagher judged the fight to perfection, taking the fight to the dangerous Venezuelan banger in the opening rounds in the face of his venomous punching power before putting his foot on the gas and pouring on relentless pressure that saw Barroso run out of steam at the halfway point.
The fight looked to have gone out of Barroso and Crolla sensed a finish in the seventh, storming into the visitor before delivering another body shot KO to follow the one that won him the title against Darleys Perez to keep the belt and cement his place in the elite at 135lbs.
“I honestly knew that I would beat him,” said Crolla. “It got my back up people saying that I would swerve him. This is my house; no-one takes my belt from my house.
“I am improving every fight. He hits hard, believe me, but I have worked too hard. The team has pushed me so hard for this one. I knew how the fight was going to go after 30 seconds. He felt a body shot in the third and it was just a clipping one, I knew he was hurt to the body and that I could get the stoppage.
“These are the nights you come into boxing for – people said that I would be remembered well after tonight and they were right, I hope everyone enjoyed it and the nights here are only going to get better.”
