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Anthony Crolla, British boxing champion in the lightweight and super featherweight categories, has suffered a serious head injury in a confrontation with burglars and has been forced to cancel January’s WBA world lightweight title bout.
The boxer from Manchester was due to face the Cuban champion Richard Abril for the WBA lightweight title in Manchester on January 23, but is now recovering in Oldham Hospital with a fractured skull and a broken ankle.
Crolla has won 29 of his 35 professional fights, and was set for the biggest bout yet of his eight-year professional career. The 28-year-old Crolla, known as ‘Million Dollar’, had earlier said about the scheduled fight with Abril: “To have the world title shot in Manchester is a huge factor. Without wanting to sound cheesy, it doesn’t get any bigger than that.
‘Amazing human being’ with a brave heart
Crolla’s trainer Joe Gallagher told BBC Radio 5 live, "His world title dreams are in tatters. (But) the more I think about it, he is lucky to be alive. Unbelievable."
“Boxing is his life but it plays second fiddle at the moment. He will need to have surgery on his ankle.”
“We were so grateful for the world title opportunity but that’s gone. Whether they can reschedule it, whether he’ll get the opportunity again and whether he can even ever fight again remain to be seen but first we have to concentrate on getting Anthony back to full health.”
“He’s only 5ft 8ft and 9st 9lb but he went out there. The support he’s had has been incredible. He’s an amazing, special human being.”
Hearing his neighbours’ burglar alarm go off on Tuesday night, Crolla proceeded to investigate. He spotted the miscreants and a short pursuit followed. He managed to apprehend one of the burglars as they were trying to escape by climbing over a wall, at which point one of them hit him over the head with a concrete slab.
Crolla’s publicist, Eddie Hearn, confirmed the news and said that the victim was one of the best human beings in the boxing circuit.
