The stoppage wasn't great, infact a poor one. However, I do think Crolla would have been stopped later on due to substantial damage. His face was getting beat up and he was there to be hit all night. Poor stoppage, but I think the doctor would have eventually stopped it anyway.
Terrible stoppage, I don't actually think Derry would have won Crolla was hurting him in last few rounds
It was a poor stoppage, but no doubt someone was getting stopped in the next few rounds. It looked to me like Crolla was hurting Derry to the body and Matthews was sagging a bit, but fair play he rallied and had Crolla in trouble. Great fight.
****ing bull**** stoppage. I'm sick of seeing these pacifist referees dive in whenever a fighter is hurt. There are far more reason to stop the fight after the first knockdown, so why didn't he do it then? It's bollocks. Whether you're a Crolla fan, a Matthews fan or a neutral, that was an atrocious stoppage. Crolla was hurt, stopped himself from going down, covered up well, fought back and then tried moving away...before the referee 'did his job' and leapt in. I'm tired of seeing these **** decisions in fights. On the general forum, posters constantly joke about "British stoppages" and we have a laugh about it on the British forum too. Why? They're disgraceful. We wouldn't accept referees docking points for accidental head clashes or other inept decisions so why do we only joke about it when a fighter is unfairly stopped? I also hate the way the Sky team will say "Crolla was doing ok, it was possible a bit premature but you have to credit..." or whatever. A decision like that shouldn't just be briefly mentioned, there should be uproar about it. Why won't they ever say what every fan is thinking? Fair enough they can't say "it was ****ing bollocks" but they can condemn it properly. That fight could have been a potential FOTY and it would have given every fan in the arena a night to remember. Instead, we are discussing yet another decision by a pacifist referee who made a terrible call.
thought crolla was getting to him by the body thought the stoppage was to early, thought he would off wore him down by the 8th or 9th, but what tonight did tell me win or got beat mitchell and burns would pick crolla off and stop him easy, must admit i had high hopes for him and im a bit disapointed but tonight showed a bit to me he aint up to euro and world level ?
Crolla could have gone down, lost two points on the round and the fight would have carried on. But Crolla didn't want to lose two points and was surviving the round. No reason why Crolla would not have won the fight. Matthews was tiring and Crollas body attacks were effective