Manchester's exciting lightweight prospect Anthony ''Million Dollar'' Crolla defends his British lightweight title against Willie Limond at the Ravenscraig Sports Center in Motherwell, Scotland this Friday night. Crolla looked sensational winning the lightweight title from John Watson earlier this year, but was almost embarrassed in his last fight, only winning on a split decision over the unfancied Juan Montiel on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr Victor Ortiz fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Now Crolla faces Glasgow's Willie Limond, a dangerous opponent who came close to knocking out Amir Khan earlier in his career, and who's three professional defeats have been against top fighters.

Crolla v Limond will be screened live on BoxNation (Sky channel 456) on Friday, the action starts at 6 PM.

32 year old Willie Limond (34-3, 8 KOs) turned professional in 1999, and soon established a reputation as an excellent boxer, relying on skill more than power to earn his victories. He won his first eighteen pro bouts against moderate opposition (a six round decision over Mongolian Warrior Choi Tseveenpurev in 2001 being an exception) before facing another rising Scottish prospect in Alex Arthur for the British super featherweight title in July 2003. 

In one of the biggest all-Scottish title clashes of the past 30 years, Arthur proved too strong for Limond, battering him to an eighth round TKO. Arthur would prove to be an outstanding fighter, defeating current WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns amongst others during his career.

Limond bounced back in June 2004, winning the European Union super featherweight title with a 10 round decision over Youssouf Djibaba of France. He defended his title successfully that December against Spaniard Alberto Lopez. 

Limond stayed busy, winning the Celtic super featherweight title in 2005 with a points win over Kevin O'Hara, and in November 2006 he added the Commonwealth lightweight title to his collection of belts with a unanimous 12 round decision over Ghana's hard-hitting Joshua Allotey at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. 

Limond's profile was at an all-time high when he defended his Commonwealth title against fast rising Olympic silver medalist Amir Khan. The anticipation for the Khan v Limond bout helped sell out the O2 Arena in July 2007, and fans were treated to a wildly exciting fight that saw both men hit the canvas. 

After five rounds of nip-and-tuck action, Limond exploded a right-hand to the head of Khan, who went down heavily. The Englishman was up in seconds and then took the eight count before inexplicably dropping down on one knee. The referee could have counted him out, but instead told him to get back on his feet and the fight continued. Limond tried desperately to finish his man off, and although he landed several good right hands, he could not find the punch to finish Khan off.

The future IBF/WBA junior welterweight champion showed his class as he came storming back in the seventh round and unleashed a fusillade of power punches against the head and body of Limond that put him down. When he got to his feet he was in desperate trouble, but managed to survive the round. Suspecting their fighter had sustained a broken jaw, Limond's corner chose to pull their man out, awarding Khan the victory.

Following the Khan fight, Limond stayed active with victories over moderate opposition, but last year he resurfaced in another high-profile bout, taking on Mexican modern great Erik Morales in front of 54,000 fans at the Monumental Plaza de Toros in Mexico City. 

Limond started well against Morales and after five rounds may have been slightly ahead on the scorecards. In the six the Mexican's brutal body punching took its toll, and after three knockdowns - all scored by vicious liver shots - the fight was stopped in Morales' favour.

Limond put himself back in the win column with a six round decision over journeyman Arek Malek in June. Now comes a golden opportunity for the Scot to get his career back on track with a big win over Crolla on Friday.

25 year old Anthony Crolla (22-2, 9 KOs) is a man on a mission these days, and is rightly regarded as one of the brightest talents in British boxing, possessing that combination of skill and power that has future world champion written all over it.  

Always supremely talented, Crolla dropped a couple of decisions early in his career - against cagey journeyman Youssef Al Hamidi in 2008, and future British super featherweight champion Gary Sykes in 2009. 

Crolla showed his true potential with a sensational third-round stoppage over former world title challenger Michael Brodie in November 2009. His growing confidence in his punching power showed itself in October 2010 when the destroyed Andy Morris in seven rounds to win the English super featherweight title.

In February 2011 Crolla took a gamble when he jumped up to lightweight for a crack at John Watson's British lightweight title, looking sensational as he dominated Watson throughout the bout, consistently beating him to the punch and beating him - period - TKO'ing him in the ninth round. 

So impressive was Crolla against Watson that he was suddenly seen as a potential future world champion. He almost had the opportunity to face current WBC light welterweight champion Erik Morales in a non-title fight on the Floyd Mayweather Jr Victor Ortiz undercard in September, but Morales pulled out of the fight (possibly after watching some DVDs of Crolla in action) and was replaced by late substitute Juan Montiel. The Mexican entered the ring with a 5-4-3 record, and was not supposed to provide Crolla with too much trouble.

In the event, the fight was closely contested. Crolla may have been guilty of taking his eye off the ball to a degree, and the Mexican sensed it was his big opportunity. Although Crolla looked like he had done more than enough to win comfortably, it was announced only as a split decision in the Englishman's favor.

On Friday night Crolla must be fully focused against an opponent in Willie Limond who proved by hanging with four weight world champion Erik Morales for five competitive rounds last year that he is still an excellent boxer. Limond will be in the shape of his life and will surely know that this could be his last chance to put himself back on top. If Crolla is once again dreaming about fights against the like of Morales or a possible WBO lightweight title shot against Ricky Burns and is not zoned in on his opponent,  Limond has the skills to go one better than Montiel and pull off a shock upset. 

However, I feel that Crolla's trainer Joe Gallagher and manager Ricky Hatton will have him 100% focused on the job at hand, and I expect to see the same model of Crolla against Limond as we saw against John Watson earlier this year. That version of Crolla will be just too fast and hit too hard for Limond, and I look for Crolla to win by a TKO in eight rounds.

Crolla by TKO in eight.

Big Fight Odds: Anthony Crolla 1/5, Willie Limond  10/3 skyBET