{"id":153887,"date":"2025-09-19T01:56:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153887\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T01:56:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:56:05","slug":"liam-paro-beats-david-papot-in-welterweight-fight-despite-black-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153887\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Paro beats David Papot in welterweight fight despite black eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Liam Paro hopes his black and blue right eye can be a trap that nets a second world title after his gritty win over David Papot in Brisbane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his welterweight debut at Pat Rafter Arena, a dogged Paro fought one-eyed for eight rounds but still notched a unanimous points victory over the previously undefeated French showman.<\/p>\n

It was a brutal introduction to the division against 34-year-old Papot, who has fought four divisions higher than the super lightweight class Paro won and lost IBF world titles in last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Queenslander was unflinching though, chipping away despite Papot’s mid-fight dominance as judges scored the 12-round tussle 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112.<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Paro carried on with one eye closed. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)<\/p>\n

Defeat in a fight billed as an IBF world-title eliminator would have been disastrous for a boxer seeking a second strap, this time in a division stacked with big-name boxers.<\/p>\n

After staring defeat in the face, albeit with only one eye, Paro said he hoped those rivals could smell blood as he attempts to lure a title fight to Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I hope they do, because I see vulnerability in them too,” Paro said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to be confident in this sport.<\/p>\n

“Not everything’s going to be rainbows and sunshine. I love it, I really do and it’s not always going to be pretty.”<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Papot caught Paro flush in the right eye. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)<\/p>\n

He was less poetic on social media later in the night, simply saying: “F***in’ hell. Had to work for that c***.”<\/p>\n

Champions Lewis Crocker (IBF), Mario Barrios (WBC) and Rolando Romero (WBA) are prime targets, while Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia<\/a>, Conor Benn and even Manny Pacquiao<\/a> have all been tossed up.<\/p>\n

“I hope they think they saw opportunities against Liam,” promoter George Rose said.<\/p>\n

“I know for a fact he can beat every one of those champions and I hope they think they can beat him.<\/p>\n

“There’s great opportunities there and we’d love to get Rolly, Barrios over here.<\/p>\n

“They’d love it \u2026 but they would leave without their belts.”<\/p>\n

Paro won his first world title in Puerto Rico<\/a> against the odds and is still attempting to build his brand domestically.<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Paro became a shock world champion in June last year, before losing it six months later. (Getty Images: Ezra Shaw)<\/p>\n

“These are character-building fights. We’re under no illusion what it takes to win a world title cause we’ve done it,” coach Alfie Di Carlo said.<\/p>\n

“These are the kind of fights \u2026 where you learn a lot about yourself.”<\/p>\n

Paro admitted to some nervous moments after the fourth-round blow that split his defences and sent him staggering back towards the ropes.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“[I was thinking] holy shit. In the heat of the moment, just trying to crack him back, just keep fighting,” he said.<\/p>\n

“100 per cent I was fighting with one eye, trying to light it up.<\/p>\n

“It’s character building. It’s not going to be pretty all the time. They’re soul-searching fights.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Liam Paro hopes his black and blue right eye can be a trap that nets a second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[81166,1854,703,49,48,76462,1138,81165,82,10092],"class_list":["post-153887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-black-eye","tag-bout","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-papot","tag-fight","tag-liam-paro","tag-sports","tag-welterweight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}