Home Boxing News A Great night for Scott Quigg, Anthony Crolla and Joe Gallagher

A Great night for Scott Quigg, Anthony Crolla and Joe Gallagher

It was a case of anything you can do, I can do better, tonight in Manchester for Bury’s Scott Quigg, who successfully retained his WBA super-bantamweight title for the third time.  Quigg, 28-0-2 (21), matched the performance of two weeks ago by his great domestic rival Carl Frampton, by stopping overmatched challenger Tshifhiwa Munyai, 24-3-1 (12), in the second round.  Munyai was in a bad way after the stoppage and was taken to hospital after the fight for precautionary checks.

There was a school of thought beforehand that Munyai, a late substitute, might cause difficulties for Quigg, being a completely different type of fighter than Nehomar Cermeno, whom Quigg had trained virtually his whole camp to fight, but who had pulled out in the week of the fight.  Nothing of the sort occurred though.  Quigg came to the ring looking full of confidence and he swept his opponent aside with the greatest of ease.  Munyai tried to get his long left jab going in the first round as the fighters sparred for openings.  In the final minute of the round, a long left hook to the chin felled Munyai like a tree.  He was badly hurt and only just survived the follow up attack before the bell brought temporary salvation.

Munyai looked to have recovered at the start of the second and was again boxing on even terms with Quigg until getting caught flush again, this time with a straight right hand from up close.  Once again, Munyai toppled slowly to the canvas.  It was midway through the round though and there was no chance that he would survive this time.  Sure enough, Scott charged him to the ropes and was landing on a defenceless target when the referee jumped in to rescue the hapless African.  It was the perfect retort to any criticism that Scott has received over the past few weeks.

Quigg’s promoters (and the promoters of this show), Matchroom, headed up by father and son Hearn, once again called out Carl Frampton in Quigg’s jubilant dressing room after the fight.  Frampton’s backers are intent on being the next challenger to WBC champion Leo Santa Cruz.  However, it seems that Matchroom are going to try to hijack that fight.  Whoever gets the Santa Cruz fight will have to go to the U.S. for the pleasure of meeting him.  The triumvirate of Golden Boy/Al Haymon/Showtime will want their man to have every advantage possible, which virtually rules out a trip to the U.K. for Santa Cruz.  Whichever Brit gets the job, if either, Leo Santa Cruz will have to be on his very best form to beat them.

Always of main interest on tonight’s show was the local derby lightweight fight between John Murray, 33-3 (20), and Anthony Crolla, 28-4-1 (11).  Just about everybody expected this to be a potential fight of the year and it did not disappoint.  Prior to the fight nobody seemed certain as to who would win, with a roughly 50/50 split between fans on the social media networks.  Murray had a slight edge with the bookmakers as the fighters made their way to the ring.

It was Crolla who made the slightly better start, moving around the ring well, not letting Murray set his feet, and picking him off nicely with the jab. Rounds two through four though were all Murray.  He charged forward like a man possessed, trapping Crolla on the ropes and thudding home his body shots and looping rights to the head around the guard.  This is the way that Murray had to fight Crolla, he was never going to outbox the stylist.  At points during rounds three and four it seemed as though Crolla might be overwhelmed.  He certainly looked frazzled going back to his corner at the end of those rounds.  It was the old John Murray, who had marauded his way to the European lightweight title four years ago.  Only it was not.

Little did we know at the time but after the fourth round Murray was to fade dramatically.  Despite saying both before and after the fight that he was in great condition, he just could not keep up the pace of his younger days.  Already in the fifth round it was palpable that John’s forward march had slowed and once Crolla was able to put daylight between himself and his opponent, there was only going to be one winner.  Crolla was able to slot home jab after jab and pick long right hands to head and body as Murray continued to come forward but was no longer throwing.  The sixth was even more one-sided for Crolla.  It was like shelling peas as he just could not miss with the jab.  It was his most dominant round yet. 

Murray fought desperately in the seventh, once again managing to put Crolla on the ropes and whale away.  He took the round but the pressure he was able to exert was nothing like he was able to do in the first four.  I made a note between rounds “JM’s final fling?”  This proved to be correct.  It was now only a matter of time and Murray had the added difficulty of blood pouring from his nose and a nasty cut and swelling under the right eye. Crolla started beating him up in the ninth round, now driving short uppercuts through the guard and in the tenth Murray finally went down onto his knees, completely spent.  He did get up but during Crolla’s follow-up attack, the referee stepped between them to call a halt.  At the time of the stoppage, two of the judges had Murray ahead by 88-83 and 87-85, whilst the other had Crolla in front 88-84.  How could there be such diversity in the scoring?  This writer had Crolla ahead 86-85, as did all three of the Sky television team at ringside.

The fight was a clear vindication of Joe Gallagher’s abilities as a trainer, which had been questioned by his former pupil Murray in the well-publicised war of words prior to the fight.  Just before the fight started, Gallagher man Paul Smith informed viewers of the game plan that Gallagher had devised before the fight for Crolla.  He was to stay with Murray through the early rounds, which they expected would be tough, and then come on late to outlast Murray and put him onto the back foot.  The plan worked to perfection.  Let us hope that the bad blood between Murray and Gallagher can now be put to bed.

In the third main fight of the night, Josh Warrington of Leeds, 17-0 (2), retained his Commonwealth featherweight title against formerly world-rated Rendall Munroe, 28-5-1 (11), bringing Rendall’s sterling career to an end in the process.  Munroe came to the fight in shape, but just does not have it any more.  He was on the wrong end of the youth and strength of his rival, who kept a nice compact shape and slotted neat straight shots through Munroe’s guard from the very first bell.  Munroe briefly got a toehold into the fight in the third, as he picked up his pace and managed to outscore Josh with a successful body attack.  It was the only success Rendall was to have though.  From the fourth round onwards, Warrington was slowly picking the older man apart and Munroe just could not go with him.

The fifth and seventh rounds in particular were hard to watch, the fight becoming very one-sided.  At the end of that seventh, Munroe’s corner called the referee over and informed him that they were pulling their man out.  Munroe stayed on his stool for a couple of minutes, weeping into a towel.  He also wept through the post-fight interview in which he confirmed his retirement from the sport.  He has had an excellent career.  For Warrington, the future looks outstanding.  It is fair to assume that current British champion Lee Selby will soon vacate the domestic belt.  Josh is in prime position to take that, to add to his Commonwealth title.  He brought a good following from Leeds to the arena and Hearn promised him a slot on his next show in his hometown next month.

Also on the card was the return of Callum Smith, 10-0 (8), after six months out of the ring with a hand injury.  Smith boxed superbly again, taking apart French veteran Francois Bastient, 43-11-1 (18), in the third round.  For the first two rounds, Bastient did nothing apart from shuffle forward with his hands high in a cocoon-like defence.  Just occasionally, he would swing a couple of hooks, one or two of which actually caught Smith.  Other than that, Smith was just battering away at any flesh he could find.  In the third round, Bastient decided to have a go.  He got brave and started throwing a few shots.  Of course, this was his downfall and Smith quickly took advantage.  He landed with a full power right uppercut through the middle, which landed in the sternum/solar plexus area and nearly cut the Frenchman in half.  He managed to get up but his corner quickly threw in the towel to make the referee’s decision for him.  The youngest of the four Smith brothers, Callum is undoubtedly one of the finest prospects in world boxing.

Finally, just a quick mention for young welterweight Sam Eggington, who must have been surprised to find his six-rounder with journeyman William Warburton being broadcast on Sky television.  Sam boxed really well against a man who only last week managed to defeat touted prospect Georgie Kean.  Against Eggington he was never able to get into the fight as Sam put him in his place from the first round.  In fact, Eggington got better and better as the fight wore on and put in a very assured performance.  Eddie Hearn has recently mentioned that he would like to extend his stable, to have some second-string fighters on off-television shows.  He most definitely must have his eye on Eggington and Johnny Coyle, who beat Sam in Prizefighter just a couple of weeks ago, as future signings.  Eggington took his record to 10-2 (4) and is improving fast.