Australia’s greatest boxer has thrown his full support behind one of its most talented stars, with Jeff Fenech declaring Liam Paro is set to join him as the country’s only two-weight male world champions.

Paro is deep in training camp for his June 24 IBF welterweight world title challenge against unbeaten Northern Irishman Lewis Crocker in Brisbane.

A victory would make the 27-1 Paro Australia’s only reigning male world champion and allow him to join Fenech as the only men in Aussie boxing history to claim world championships in two different weight classes.

Fenech has a long relationship with Paro’s trainer Alfie di Carlo and promoter Ange di Carlo, making “The Prodigy’s” rise even sweeter.

“I’ve always thought Liam was special, right from the early days,” Fenech told Code Sports. “He went overseas to Puerto Rico and beat Subriel Matias in his own backyard – somewhere nobody wins.

“We talk about great wins, and that was one of the best ever.

“I have a great relationship with the di Carlo family, and Alfie and Ange always said how great he was going to be.

“I wish we could get a hundred of them.

“But this one is going to be special because of my relationship with the di Carlos.”

Despite knowing from early on how good Paro was, Fenech says he was still surprised at just how much dynamite he packs into each punch when he trained Brock Jarvis against the southpaw in 2022.

In that fight in Brisbane, Paro made a huge statement, knocking the highly touted Jarvis out inside one round.

“To be honest, when he fought Brock, I thought one of our great advantages was that he wasn’t a big puncher,” Fenech said. “But with his speed and his precision, he shocked me.

“He shocked everybody, and he’s continued to do that. It wasn’t a fluke.

“He’s very skilful, and has a great eye. He can control the distance of a fight, he can be there, make you miss and make you pay.

“He’s just got better and better.”

Paro is blown away when Code Sports tells him about Fenech’s comments.

“That means the world, it truly does,” he said. “It’s the greatest fighter we’ve ever had in this country.

“And not only that, he’s the greatest rated featherweight with the WBC. That’s over the likes of Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and the list goes on.

“That’s crazy. To be in the same sentence and to have the support of someone like Jeff Fenech is truly humbling.

“It just lights that fire even more to be able to join him at that level.

“I’m getting goosebumps just talking about it. It’s crazy that it’s so close to being a reality.”

Paro has four more weeks of serious training before his shot at Crocker, who is scheduled to land in Australia next week.

And the 30-year-old has been getting sparring in with some of the best boxers in the country as he prepares to make history.

“I’m feeling really good, I’ve been going 12 rounds sparring with two different opponents,” he said. “We’ve had Jason Malia and Cesar Afacan up from Melbourne.

“We’ve got Marco Romeo coming up from Sydney as well and Kyron Dryden as well.

“It’s great to give them an opportunity to come into camp, and they’ve helped us a lot.

“They’re keeping me honest and they’ve all got different styles too. They all bring something different, which is good because we know Crocker has changed up his style a bit as well.

“It gives us more of a look at different styles and I’ll be ready for whatever he’s got.”