Firstly Congrats to Anthony as one of the nicest lads youl meet , Something i find strange though is him getting the fight with Abril without fighting any WBA eliminators etc to get ranking points with that organisation especially his old foe Derry also holding a WBA Inter belt , With the likes of Kevin Mitchell fighting final eliminators etc in the IBF Variant id have thought hed have got a shot first at a World Title before crolla , just a point that poped into my head but a nice lad none the less and deserving of his shot
He seems a really nice lad, has improved tons, and I hope he wins but I cannot see it. The standard of world champ at LW is quite poor overall (Crawford excluded) and Abril sums that up, but I still think he is a level or two above Crolla.
Not many folk gave him a chance v Rees hopefully theirs the same outcome! Am going for a good crolla points win
Mitchell would already be mandatory for the IBF if he didn't **** up his weight in his last fight. Hearn said he has a good relation with the IBF, he got Brook, Groves, Degale all in mandatory position with them, so he'll probably be next anyway. I think the reason Hearn got Crolla the shot instead of Mitchell is because a) Mitchell is going the IBF route and pretty much already got a mando title shot, if he got Mitchell this fight, he wouldn't be able to get Crolla his title shot b) Out of the LW champions he'll be the cheapest to get over because he's Cuban. c) It's voluntary so there's no messing about with eliminators like Mitchell has. d) Figueroa and Crawford are probably impossible to make without being mandatory and probably hard to even get a mandatory shot, so it's Crolla only real opportunity.
He will be mando soon enough, probably without an eliminator. Hearn will just keep him busy and work his magic behind the scenes to pull it off.
I'm telling you mate, Mitchell will be mando for the IBF in 2015, either gets it with another final eliminator or Hearn will get him straight in.