Tuesday 20 September 2016 12:11, UK
Anthony Crolla faces another tough world title defence on Saturday, live on Sky Sports, and Carl Froch is not only impressed but believes there are few more popular fighters in Britain today...
Like most people who watch boxing, I have become a big fan of Anthony Crolla.
He hasn't exactly come from nowhere, but he was a decent domestic or European fighter who we hoped would get a world title challenge and I wasn't sure he would win it.
But from the moment of that awful attack two years ago, he has turned into something very special. He is without doubt one of the most popular fighters we have got here in Britain and he thoroughly deserves to be.
No one has got a bad word to say about Ant. He is a really good lad and sometimes when you meet boxers coming up, they are a bit arrogant, full of themselves, but not this lad. He is just a nice guy and it shows that, sometimes, good guys do win.
We know he had his ups and downs in the ring, but I just think it was that life-changing experience when he got attacked after chasing a burglar.
Only he and maybe even Joe Gallagher will know how that changed his approach and made him train more seriously. Having almost lost his life, maybe he realised he had the chance to change his life. From that point on, Crolla has been a new man.
Crolla will sell out the Manchester Arena on Saturday and I am sure Anthony Joshua will do the same in November. Crolla is a close second when it comes to popularity.
If we had been talking about this fight two years ago, we would not have given him a chance of beating Linares. Now everyone not only want to see him do it, but he is the bookies' favourite.
But today's Crolla has developed into a well-rounded, solid, seasoned world champion and you have got to believe in him.
Look at that the way he won that world title. Yes, he should have got the result against Darleys Perez in the first one, but sometimes, we see fighters have one shot and that's it.
Yet Crolla came back straight away and did a proper, proper job with that bodyshot. Then he goes on to make his first mandatory defence against Ismael Barroso and did a job on him. Now he is taking on a three-weight world champion in Linares. At this rate, the lad will become the next Carl Froch!
When it comes to defending that WBA belt, he is already defending it against the best he can. There are no easy fights for him now and I get the feeling that is exactly what Ant Crolla wants.
Look around the rest of our world champions: have any of them have two defences like this? Even when I think back, when I won the world title I thought I'd earned a couple of easy defences, like even the very best we've had, like Ricky Hatton, Naseem Hamed and Joe Calzaghe.
It just didn't happen to me. It was during the financial meltdown in 2008 and ITV pulled out out so I was kind of left in no man's land, so was quite happy when the Super Six came along, knowing I would be fighting the best of the best for the next two years.
I was nervous at the time, but I knew that if I was fighting, shall we say, fighters that weren't the best, then I knew I wouldn't be at my best. My first defences was against Jermain Taylor and that didn't really have to happen, but I went over to America to take him on and it must have been in my blood.
I just think it is in Crolla's blood now. He is not afraid of anyone. Success breeds confidence and that is what we have seen with him.
I think he just loves it, but I also know his self-belief would have gone through the roof after winning the world title, then beating Barroso. He knows he is getting well paid, but he is also more appreciated than ever.
He will sell out the Manchester Arena on Saturday and I am sure Anthony Joshua will do the same in November, but I really do think Crolla is a close second when it comes to popularity in boxing.
Watch Crolla v Linares live on Sky Sports 2 from 7.30pm this Saturday
