![\"Boxer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/54035bf205e586e8641b93801c606184.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLiam Paro has questioned the mindset of champion Lewis Crocker and revealed he was reduced to sleeping in a car to chase his boxing dream ahead of his historic title fight chance.<\/p>\n
The Queenslander (27-1) will seek to become a multiple-division world champion when he takes on the Northern Irishman (22-0) at Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Paro’s shot at the IBF welterweight crown comes almost two years to the day since he upset Subriel Matias in his Puerto Rican stronghold to win the IBF super lightweight belt.<\/p>\n
Victory would see the 30-year-old become the first Australian-born fighter since Jeff Fenech, 39 years ago, to win world titles involving the four major boxing organisations in more than one weight division.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lewis Crocker will defend his world welterweight title in Brisbane. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)<\/p>\n
It comes after the Mackay product boldly quit an auto electrical apprenticeship to move to Townsville as a teenager and chase a boxing career, without a “plan B”.<\/p>\n
Paro delivered fridges for The Good Guys and then worked at Rocklea’s fruit market after moving to Brisbane, when he suddenly found himself without a roof over his head.<\/p>\n
“I was stuck for a bit, with nowhere to go for a couple of weeks,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Living in Carol, I called it, a little blue Corolla.<\/p>\n
“Crazy, but it’s all chapters in the book \u2026 you’ll look back and go ‘wow’.”<\/p>\n
Promoter No Limit Boxing pipped Paro’s previous manager, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom \u2014 who manage Crocker \u2014 by just $27,000 to claim hosting rights with a national record bid of $1.152 million.<\/p>\n
As champion, Crocker will collect the lion’s share of that sum, but if Paro wins he will command big dollars to validate his bold move almost 15 years ago.<\/p>\n
“I told dad I was going to leave [the apprenticeship] and shit hit the fan,” Paro recalled.<\/p>\n
“That was certain, a trade, but I was leaping into a ‘could be’, something that was just a dream.<\/p>\n
“People were asking what my plan B was, but for me a plan B means I’m thinking about failure. It kept me so locked in.<\/p>\n
“So now, you look over the hill at what’s there, it’s life-changing.<\/p>\n
“But there’s a big roadblock in Lewis Crocker.”<\/p>\n
Crocker, ahead of his first title defence and first professional fight outside Europe, has been in Brisbane for more than two weeks.<\/p>\n
The pair faced off at Sunday’s grand arrivals for the first time and Paro asked Crocker why he continued to describe himself as the underdog, questioning if that was a “champion mindset”.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Monday’s main press conference, Paro also took a shot at Hearn, who has not travelled from England to support Crocker.<\/p>\n
“It just shows a bit of disrespect,” he said, adding that “deep down” Crocker would be annoyed he had to travel overseas to defend his title.<\/p>\n
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