Jorge Linares vs. Anthony Crolla II

After his close decision victory over Anthony Crolla in September 2016 to win the WBA and The Ring lightweight titles Jorge Linares told the Manchester crowd that he was open to a rematch saying "I want to tell all the people thank you very much. We gave Manchester a beautiful fight and we can do it again."^[2]

On 6 October the WBC ordered negotiations to begin between Linares and their titleholder Dejan Zlatičanin, which no deadlines in place. A doctors report revealed that Linares had hurt his right hand during the Crolla fight and wouldn't be returning to the ring in the near future. Due to that reason, Zlatičanin was permitted to make a voluntary defence.^[3]

Reports in early December suggested a rematch could possibly take place in Manchester on 25 March 2017 with the winner ordered to fight the winner of the Dejan Zlatičanin vs. Mikey Garcia bout, due to take place January, which was won by Garcia, in a unification fight.^[4][5] An official announcement was made on 4 January for the fight take place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester.^[6][7][8] The fight would be televised live on Sky Sports in the UK and on 24 January, Showtime announced they would cover the fight in the United States.^[9][10][11]

Speaking in the build up Crolla admitted that defeating Linares would take the best performance of his career "Winning it back on Saturday would, without doubt, be the highlight of my career. There's a lot of people out there who think there's no way I can beat Jorge Linares. Jorge is a great fighter but I'll prove an awful lot of people wrong. I'm a realist. I know it's going to take a career best performance."^[12]

Linares was a 8/15 favourite to win with the bookmakers, while Crolla was a 2/1 underdog.^[13]

Crolla started off well hitting to body, but Linares quickly capitalised and started connected well to the body and landing combinations of uppercuts. Crolla was dropped in the 7th round by a left uppercut. At the end of round 11, Crolla's trainer Joe Gallagher came into the ring and walked towards referee Howard John Foster, possibly to stop the fight. After Crolla pleaded with him, Gallagher allowed him to go out for the final round.

The fight again went the distance with both fighters embracing at the final bell. Linares won via a wide 118–109 unanimous decision on all three scorecards.^{[14][15][16][17]}

In the post-fight interview, Linares thanked his promoter Oscar De La Hoya for making the trip and watching him ringside and said his next move would be a big pay day in Las Vegas against WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia. Crolla apologized to the live attendance, admitted he lost to the better man and said he would be back to rebuild, "Manchester, I am so sorry I couldn't do it for you. Your support means so much to me. He caught me but before that I thought I could get to him. I got beaten by the better man - no excuses. I am 30 years old, I am going to rest, but I believe I can go again."^[18] Crolla also admitted that he was considering moving up to light welterweight to possibly face fellow former world champion Ricky Burns.^[19]

Confirmed bouts:^[20][21]

Winner	Loser	Weight division/title belt(s) disputed	Result
Lawrence Okolie	Geoffrey Cave	Cruiserweight (4 rounds)	1st round KO
Jack Arnfield	Brian Rose	WBA International Middleweight title	Unanimous decision
Katie Taylor	Milena Koleva	Lightweight (8 rounds)	Unanimous decision
Jason Welborn	Marcus Morrison	WBC International Silver Middleweight title	Unanimous decision
Martin Joseph Ward	Maxi Hughes	British Super Featherweight title	Unanimous decision
Hosea Burton	Tamas Kozma	Light heavyweight (8 rounds)	Points decision
Preliminary bouts
Ben Sheedy	Rob Brown	Super middleweight (6 rounds)	Points decision
Sean McGoldrick	Brett Fidoe	Bantamweight (4 rounds)	Points decision
Non-TV bouts
Karel Horejsek	Tomi Tatham	Cruiserweight (8 rounds)	1st round TKO
Nathan Wheatley	Chris Jenkinson	Middleweight (4 rounds)	Points decision