Anthony Crolla vs Jorge Linares II

After a fascinating fight in which Jorge Linares showed his class to claim a unanimous decision against Anthony Crolla in September last year, the pair come face-to-face again at the Manchester Arena for a rematch on Saturday night (25/03/17).

Linares puts his WBA, WBC Diamond and Ring magazine world lightweight titles on the line, giving Crolla a shot at regaining his world title status. TSZ takes a look at some of the numbers behind the fight as well as examining the main undercard fights too.

Linares impressed all three judges in the last fight with them scoring the bout 115-114, 115-113 and 117-111 in his favour, although many critics said the latter scorecard was the most accurate to how the fight panned out.
Linares holds the greater KO record of the two; he has stopped 27 opponents (61%) whilst Crolla has only stopped 13 of his opponents (33%).
On the flip side, Crolla holds more victories from fights that have gone the distance, claiming 18 wins on points to Linares’ 14. However, Linares showed in the first fight between the two that he knows how to get the job done over 12 rounds; he landed with some significant shots but did a great job of wearing Crolla down and looking comfortable in taking the decision.
The two measure up evenly with just half an inch separating them in height in Crolla’s favour, but Linares holds a two-inch reach advantage which he used dominantly in his first fight as he picked Crolla off with regularity.
Linares has won his last 10 fights, with the last time he suffered a defeat coming back in 2012. Crolla, on the other hand, has only won three of his previous six bouts.
Linares is the more experienced man when it comes to big fights, with him taking part in 10 world title bouts compared to Crolla’s four.

This could be last chance saloon for Brian Rose as he looks to claim the WBA International middleweight title against a tricky looking opponent in Jack Arnfield, in what is the chief undercard fight.
Rose has lost two of his last six fights – Carson Jones stopped him in the first round of their 2015 bout before Matt Macklin claimed a majority decision last year.
Arnfield has gone under the radar in his career so far, with him only losing two fights of his 25 to date. However, that could be due to the class of the opponents he’s faced, with his last six combining for a W-L-D record of 73-94-5.
Arnfield has a 5cm height advantage which could be a significant difference coming up against Rose, with the latter's career beginning to show its toll on his performances.
Both boxers lack the power to put opponents away – the pair currently hold a 24% KO record each.

Martin J Ward faces Maxi Hughes for the third time, with the BBBofC British Super Featherweight and WBC International Super Featherweight titles on the line.
The pair first fought at the end of 2014, when they shared the spoils with a majority draw.
Ward forced Hughes to retire at the end of the fifth round in their second bout with a badly damaged nose in 2015, claiming the vacant WBC International Super Featherweight title in the process.
Both men hold similar records at this stage in their career, the only difference being the two losses Hughes has whilst Ward remains unbeaten in 18 fights.
Ward has a big advantage in terms of KO records, with him managing to stop eight opponents (44%) whilst Hughes has only won by KO on two occasions (10%).

Up-and-coming Marcus Morrison will be looking to claim the WBC Middleweight International Championship on Saturday, in what looks like a relatively straightforward fight.
Morrison has enjoyed an unbeaten start to his professional career, with him tasting victory in all 14 of his bouts so far, 10 of which were wins by KO to leave him with 71% KO record.
He’s achieved that with an average round win of 2.5, having only fought for 35 rounds in his career to date.
Welborn (20-6-0) appears to be out of his depth against the man six years his junior and may struggle to handle the power of Morrison.