Anthony Crolla: The Million Dollar Man Who Dreams of Hitting the Jackpot
BRITISH lightweight champion Anthony Crolla says that he's ignoring the form book and preparing himself for the very best Derry Mathews.
25-year-old Crolla has been looking like his 'Million Dollar' nickname in the last couple of years, while Mathews comes into their April 21 meeting without a win in his last two outings.
But the domestic ruler from Manchester is adamant that recent results count for nothing and he can't afford to take a clash with the self-styled "Dirty" Derry for granted.
"Some people have asked whether he's past his best after his last fight but that isn't the way I'm looking at it," Anthony, 23 - 2 (9 KOs), told Hatton Boxing.
"Styles make fights and up until his last fight he'd really reinvented himself and turned his career around.
"I'm preparing for the very best Derry Mathews on April 21st because he's a dangerous opponent. I've been looking at his best performances and analysing his strengths, I've not been looking at the fights where he's been beaten."
Despite being stopped in seven rounds by Italian hardman Emiliano Marsilli at the start of the year, Liverpool's Mathews is brimming with confidence and recently said that he is 'going to take Crolla to places he's never been before'.
"I'd love to know what places he means," Anthony responded. "I've been in fights where I've had to bite down on my gumshield and I've had to come from behind. I've never had to get off the canvas to win, but I know how to fight my way back into a fight.
"I'm very confident I'm going to take him to those places he thinks he can take me to."
If victorious, Crolla will only need to make one more defence of the historic Lonsdale belt to win it outright and that's certainly something he'd like to do before moving on to European and even world level.
"I've always wanted to win a Lonsdale belt outright and I only need one more fight," he enthused. "It would be nice to have one on the mantelpiece because it's the nicest belt in boxing and the most prestigious.
"Some of the names which are on that belt are incredible so I'd be honoured to be on the same list as them.
"I think I'd have done it properly as well because I won it at short notice in the lion's den and I've defended it on the road before this next fight near home. Win this fight and then there's just one more to go."
A fight with European champion Gavin Rees is also one which interests him as it would serve the dual purpose of allowing him to aim for the domestic crown outright while also giving him the opportunity to gain the continental strap.
"We could put both belts on the line and I think that would be a great fight because our styles would gel," Anthony said.
"Gavin is a great fighter, a former world champion, and he's come down a division to win a European title and defend it and he's someone I really respect.
"It would be an old school way of doing things with the British and the European belts being fought for and in that sense it couldn't fail to be a good fight."
With two of the sport's most prestigious baubles around his waist, Crolla would be in dreamland, but things weren't always so rosy.
Back the summer of 2009 Anthony was on the rocky road to recovery after falling short in an elimination contest against Dewsbury's Gary Sykes.
A switch of trainer was in order, with Joe Gallagher replacing Arnie Farnell as his fistic mentor. It's a move which many people have attributed with the affable Mancunian's recent run of championship success.
"I think you'd struggle to find someone who could say I haven't improved since I've been with Joe," Crolla declared. "I'm a different fighter now to the one which lost to Gary Sykes and that's not being disrespectful to anyone.
"Joe has really worked with me and turned my career around and nobody could say any different. I believe I'm lucky to have someone like him training me.
"My style has changed a bit, not just physically but mentally also because one of the things Joe has done is work on my confidence. He's added things to my game and people say I look a lot stronger now."
And he's hoping that new found strength and confidence take him to the very top of the boxing tree.
Not since the days when a certain Mr Hatton used to pack the MEN Arena to the rafters has Manchester had a world champion to get behind and Crolla hopes he can one day reach the lofty heights attained by the man who is now his promoter.
"I can't even put in words what it would mean to me to be the first Mancunian world champion since Ricky Hatton," Anthony said.
"I used to watch Ricky down at the MEN when I was a kid and eventually I'd love to top the bill there in a world title myself.
"I've just got to make sure I keep winning and as long as I keep doing so I can't see no reason why I can't get there. It's a dream I can fulfil.
"What would make it extra special as well is the fact that I'd be Ricky's first world champion since he became a promoter. That would make me very proud."
But Crolla would be lying if he said his dreams were limited to world title fights at the MEN. Like Hatton before him, he has aspirations of topping bills under the bright lights of Las Vegas.
Last September he defeated Mexico's Juan Montiel on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jnr's meeting with Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand in Sin City and feel in love with the place.
"I want to go back and not just for a holiday either," he laughed.
"I've got a long way to go before I could be in a big fight over there but even being on the undercard of a world title fight is a dream come true and something to have in your scrapbook.
"It was fantastic last time. Obviously I didn't box in front of a packed crowd but to be in the same ring where a future hall of famer like Floyd Mayweather would be boxing in was a bit surreal. When I look back it's a great memory and one I want to live again."
By Andrew Wake
http://www.hattonboxing.com/tv/featu...ng-the-jackpot