{"id":310241,"date":"2025-11-27T12:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/310241\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T12:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:46:07","slug":"lewis-crocker-belfast-fighter-set-to-defend-world-title-at-windsor-park-in-april-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/310241\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Crocker: Belfast fighter set to defend world title at Windsor Park in April"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lewis Crocker is set to return to Windsor Park for a voluntary defence of his IBF world welterweight title next spring. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Belfast fighter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c89dgx3jnzxo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">beat Paddy Donovan by split decision<\/a> to clinch the vacant belt in front of a sold-out crowd at Northern Ireland&#8217;s national football stadium in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Crocker and Donovan&#8217;s fight &#8211; a rematch of their March contest which ended in Donovan&#8217;s disqualification &#8211; marked boxing&#8217;s return to Windsor Park for the first time since Carl Frampton&#8217;s victory over Luke Jackson in August 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is understood a defence is slated for 11 April, with an opponent expected to be confirmed in the next fortnight. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Crocker, who is unbeaten in 22 professional bouts, has been vocal about his desire to fight Conor Benn, who defeated bitter rival Chris Eubank Jr in dominant fashion in their Tottenham Hotspur Stadium rematch on 15 November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking to BBC Sport NI in the build-up to that fight, Crocker&#8217;s manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/clygp27g9j1o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamie Conlan mentioned <\/a>Benn and WBC champion Mario Barrios as options for the 28-year-old. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Englishman Benn this week told <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/conor-benn-rejects-welter-world-champion\/\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boxing News, external<\/a> Crocker &#8220;is not really a name that is on my radar&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With a victory in April, Crocker would be expected to return to the ring in late summer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Crocker is set to return to Windsor Park for a voluntary defence of his IBF world welterweight&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-310241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310241","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=310241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}