{"id":748212,"date":"2026-06-20T05:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T05:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748212\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T05:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T05:32:11","slug":"liam-paro-vs-lewis-crocker-ibf-welterweight-world-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748212\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Paro vs Lewis Crocker: IBF welterweight world title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine years ago, a hopeful boxing manager turned to his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 as they sat in the nosebleeds at Suncorp Stadium watching Jeff Horn beat Manny Pacquiao and said: \u201cYou can f***in\u2019 do that.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a long shot back then, with the rising star only three fights into his professional career, but this Wednesday night, Liam Paro can prove his manager, Angelo di Carlo, right by beating Lewis Crocker to claim the IBF welterweight world title. <\/p>\n

If he pulls it off, Paro will become just the second Aussie man to win world titles in two different weight classes, and the first man to win a world title in Brisbane since The Hornet did it in 2017.<\/p>\n

And that sunny afternoon in Brisbane in July nearly a decade ago was where the dream started to turn into reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember it, I was there, because I was the main sparring partner for Horn,\u201d Paro told Mark Bouris on his podcast of Horn\u2019s famous win. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were way up in the bleachers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were watching the screen anyway, but just the atmosphere of the sold out crowd was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horn battled through a bruising ninth round to claim a heroic unanimous decision victory and one of the best Aussie boxing wins on record. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a story about that,\u201d Paro said. \u201cI remember I was sitting with Angelo di Carlo \u2013 my manager at Ace Boxing \u2013 and he turned to me after Horn beat Pacquiao. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going good in sparring with Horn, and he turned to me and said: \u2018You can f***in\u2019 do this\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the big crucial points. That gave me the self-belief \u2013 even more than what I had \u2013 to know that I was going to win my own world title down the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going very well with Horn in the gym, and I\u2019m very appreciative of that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d had three pro fights at the time. I\u2019d only just started my career, and getting the call up to be the main sparring partner for (a guy fighting) Manny Pacquiao. My idol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Man, they must think I go all right\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paro won his first world title at super-lightweight with a similarly heroic performance against scary knockout artist Subriel Matias in Matias\u2019 own backyard in Puerto Rico. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time, Subriel Matias was stopping everyone \u2013 undefeated fighters all around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe asked for the fight. <\/p>\n

\u201c (Paro\u2019s promoter at the time) Matchroom were like, \u2018Are you feeling all right?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew what we could do. I\u2019ve faced adversity my whole life and I know how to come out on the other side of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s a champion when it\u2019s all sunshine and rainbows, but when your back\u2019s against the wall, I\u2019ve proven many times it\u2019s in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paro says he\u2019s willing and ready to go to any lengths to emerge victorious on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know the risks of boxing. I know I\u2019m going in there with the risk of maybe never coming back out and seeing my family,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the risk we take every time we step into the ring. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my life. I\u2019m built for this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the risks we\u2019re going in for, but we\u2019re soldiers. We\u2019re warriors. That\u2019s what we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main motivation is to fight for a better life for us and our loved ones. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re in there for. It\u2019s taken so much sacrifice to get here, and we\u2019re doing it to give our families a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine years ago, a hopeful boxing manager turned to his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 as they sat in the nosebleeds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-748212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748212","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=748212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}