{"id":292388,"date":"2025-11-18T10:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292388\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:47:11","slug":"paddy-donovan-down-under-first-down-goes-crocker-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292388\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Donovan: Down Under First \u2013 Down Goes Crocker Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paddy Donovan<\/a> says he\u2019s heading to Australia with one mission: do the business against Liam Paro so he can settle unfinished world title business with Lewis Crocker.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018The Real Deal\u2019 fights the former light welterweight world title challenger in Oz in an IBF welterweight world title eliminator. The winner becomes mandatory for the strap currently in the possession of the Belfast puncher. <\/p>\n

Going into the fight the Limerick welterweight hasn\u2019t been shy about where his motivation lies. <\/p>\n

While Paro is the man in front of him, Crocker is the name still rattling around in his head \u2014 is set on a trilogy he doesn\u2019t think \u2018The Croc\u2019 wants.<\/p>\n

Donovan has never hidden his belief that he beat Crocker in their Windsor Park rematch. In fact, he\u2019s doubled down on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched the last fight back a lot of times and every time I\u2019ve watched it I think I\u2019ve won the fight,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not just being biased \u2013 I think I did enough to win the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Belfast, UK: Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan during todays Weigh In ahead of their IBF World Welterweight Title fight tomorrow night in Belfast
\n12 September 2025
\nPicture By Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing<\/p>\n

Rather than stew in frustration, Donovan has flipped the narrative. He sees Paro as the perfect stepping stone back to Crocker \u2014 and the chance to close the book on a rivalry he feels still has a chapter missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook \u2013 it\u2019s a great opportunity for me to run it back against Lewis,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s unfinished business there. I might be in Lewis\u2019 dreams \u2013 I\u2019m sure he doesn\u2019t want to fight me for a third time. But that\u2019s my end goal. Beat Liam Paro, in Australia, and take on Crocker again, for the third time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning abroad, though, comes with concerns. The Andy Lee-trained Matchroom boxer is all too aware of what it means to go into a champion\u2019s backyard \u2014 and he wants the one thing he didn\u2019t believe he got last time out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think this time, after the last couple of fights, I deserve to get a fair shake,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I get a fair shake in Australia, I believe I\u2019ll dominate Liam Paro.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Donovan says he\u2019s heading to Australia with one mission: do the business against Liam Paro so he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,30028,61496,30029,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-292388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-lewis-crocker","12":"tag-liam-paro","13":"tag-paddy-donovan","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}