By Ryan Burton
On March 25th, WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares (41-4) will travel back to the UK to face Anthony Crolla (31-5-3) in a rematch of their September war that Linares won by unanimous decision.
The fight will once again take place at the Manchester Arena and Linares said that he plans on winning the rematch in dominant fashion so that there will be no talk of a trilogy fight.
"I'm going back to his house. I need to buy an apartment over there soon," joked Linares who also holds a 2015 knockout victory in the UK over Kevin Mitchell.
"The truth is I am very content to have this opportunity. He is a strong opponent and I have a lot of respect for him. I am going over there with a new strategy to see if we can beat him more clearly so that there is no need for another fight. We are working very hard for March 25th."
The 31-year-old Linares is co-promoted by Teiken and Golden Boy Promotions. When he started out his career, he was signed only to the Japan based promotional outfit Teiken and 12 of his first 14 fights took on Japanese soil.
He has also fought in his native Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico and Panama. His extensive international experience has made him very confident going into his rematch against Crolla.
" I don't care where I fight. I always liked fighting in the backyard of my opponents. I lived in Japan for more than 14 years and it is also my second home. Let's see if I get an opportunity after this fight to fight on pay-per-view or Showtime but first we need to get a win on March 25th," Linares stated.
Fans in the United States will be able to watch the bout live with the recent announcement that Showtime has purchased the US rights to the sequel. They will broadcast the bout via their Showtime Boxing International series.
"I am very thankful for the support of Showtime in this fight. Now the Americans and Latin Americans can see my fight. So many of my fights are in Japan or in this case Europe so I am really thankful to them," Linares told BoxingScene.com.
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