Linares chose to use his speed and threw beautiful combinations to not allow Crolla to get any type of offense going and looked as good as one can look in a championship fight,especially in the challengers backyard.
Give Crolla lots of credit for hanging in there all evening and taking quite a pounding.
Crolla could have easily packed it in after being felled by a Linares uppercut in the seventh round,but rose and even had a few moments after that,but never threatened Linares in any fashion.
All three judges scored the bout as I did 118-109 (10-2 in rounds plus the knockdown) for the champion.
The Linares victory looks to have cemented a summer showdown with WBC champion Mikey Garcia in what should be an excellent fight between two of the best offensive fighters in the sport that have both won titles in three different divisions.
Both fighters would enter such a bout with questions.
Linares has been stopped in all three of his losses and has shown a tendency to cut while Garcia has steamrolled through his competition,but despite dominating,he was dropped by Roman Martinez and staggered badly by Juan Carlos Burgos.
I've also wondered about Garcia's desire in the sport and have questions about how he may respond when he is challenged by a fighter that can approach his skill level.
There are some promotional issues as Linares fights for Golden Boy with Garcia being represented by Golden Boy's sworn enemy in former GBP chairman Richard Schaefer and his new Ringstar Promotions,so this fight won't be easy to make,but with the WBC mandating Garcia to defend against Linares next (Linares was the WBC champ before becoming the "champion in recess" due to injuries)
that should help the fight get signed.
It's one of the best matchups in the game and the winner will clearly be the best at 135 pounds.
Ramon Malpica each picked Linares by unanimous decision,so we each added two points to move the total to 31-29 in my favor.
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