MANCHESTER lightweight Anthony Crolla will remain active with an eight-round fight in Dublin on Saturday. Crolla will take on Giyorgy Mizsei Jnr at the 3Arena on the undercard to Matthew Macklin’s clash with Jorge Sebastian Heiland for the WBC International middleweight title.
Along with his trainer Joe Gallagher, the decision was made to give Crolla a tune-up fight before a big fight in Manchester at the end of January, possibly a final eliminator for the world title.
Crolla said: “I want to stay active and I’ve been training hard alongside Scott Quigg since the start of October. I’m always in the gym and Eddie Hearn has put me on the bill in an eight-rounder to make sure I’m ready for the end of January and a big fight.
“I always got great sparring with Scott and Scotty Cardle, who is fighting on the 22nd of the month, so I’m nice and sharp. We get the best of each other, as we’re all fighting on similar dates and if you make one mistake, you get punished, even in sparring.”
Crolla is looking for a good performance after the disappointment of his last fight with Gamaliel Diaz at the Phones 4U Arena in his home city. Diaz pulled out after the third round and was awarded a technical draw after he was cut following a head clash.
But, “Million Dollar” was adamant that the incident won’t stop him and he is confident that a world title fight is almost certainly on the horizon for him in 2015.
He said: “It was so frustrating when he pulled out, because it was warming up quite nicely. If you watch it, he tells his corner to stop treating the cut and he gets a technical draw. For me, the fight should have been stopped there and then, as he quit and I should have got the win.
“But it won’t affect me, as I’ve got bigger fights coming up. I’ve got a high ranking with the WBO and wouldn’t mind taking on the winner of Terence Crawford and Raymundo Beltran, although it’s common knowledge that Crawford is probably going to move up.
“Richar Abril is a fight I’ve been after a while and I’d still take it, but we’ll start with a final eliminator in January before the world title fight in the spring or summer. It will be an opportunity I am going to take with both hands when it comes my way.”
