{"id":363799,"date":"2026-01-11T03:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/363799\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T03:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:21:11","slug":"lewis-crocker-opens-up-on-billy-nelson-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/363799\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Crocker opens up on Billy Nelson split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welterweight champion Lewis Crocker<\/a> has opened up on his decision to leave Billy Nelson just months after they won the IBF title together.
Crocker this week confirmed<\/a> he has left Nelson\u2019s gym in Glasgow, Scotland and relocated to Surrey, England to link up with Huzaifah \u2018H\u2019 Iqbal at Adam Booth\u2019s gym.
The news came as a surprise to many given Nelson had helped steer Crocker (22-0, 11 KOs) to his upset victory over Paddy Donovan<\/a> in September which gleaned the IBF welterweight belt.<\/p>\n

Nelson has spoken of his disappointment in Crocker\u2019s decision but the 29-year-old insists he did not make it lightly following their two successful years together.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook it was a very, very tough decision to make,\u201d Crocker told The Ring<\/a>\u2019s Louis Hart on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very comfortable in Scotland and I have very, very good friends there and everything was sorted for me. By no way was it an easy decision for me to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it was too comfortable and I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone and almost make a fresh start because I feel like I\u2019ve got a lot to improve on and I could be better in a lot of aspects.”<\/p>\n

During an interview with Boxing Scene, Nelson revealed that he felt insulted by Crocker\u2019s suggestion that he had taken him as far as he could. He suggested that Crocker\u2019s decision was wrong and pointed out that Iqbal has not done \u2018a fraction\u2019 of what he\u2019s done as a coach.<\/p>\n

But Crocker says he has previously shown loyalty to Nelson despite people advising him to leave in the wake of his 2024 fight with Conah Walker and his first fight with Donovan in March.<\/p>\n

On Nelson\u2019s comments, Crocker added: \u201cI\u2019ve seen that he\u2019s said things and he\u2019s said that I\u2019ve said things. But I\u2019ve never said anything. People say things on Twitter and he bites. I think it\u2019s quite silly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Billy, he\u2019s a great guy and he did a lot for me as well but I\u2019m a fighter and if I think I need to be better \u2026 I remember the first Walker fight, all I saw was about leaving Billy. The first Donovan fight, I didn\u2019t see one comment telling me to stay with Billy and I stuck with Billy after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big decision to make and I stuck with him then. If I feel as a fighter that I can be better \u2026 I\u2019m only going to be fighting world class fighters from now on and I don\u2019t want to be going in there knowing I\u2019m not a 100 per cent version of myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo disrespect to Billy, I love Billy and I\u2019ve never said a bad word about Billy at all. I don\u2019t know where he\u2019s getting that from and I think he should stop reading comments on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a lovely fella and he took me in a couple of years ago in Scotland and it was a very hard decision to make. I could have sat there in Scotland comfortably but I have a new start here, a fresh gym, fresh house and everything\u2019s different. It\u2019s a big decision to make and as a world champion, if me and my team feel I can be better, I have to take those opportunities. <\/p>\n

\u201cStarting the new year as world champion, New year, new coach, fresh start. I have big plans ahead and I know I\u2019m going to show the world how good a fighter I can be and will be. I have great confidence going into the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crocker, who already knew Iqbal having spent time training under Booth, added: \u201cI knew H prior as a person and he would do anything for you, a real gentleman. Extremely good coach, very tactical, pushes you very very hard so I\u2019m excited about what\u2019s to come going forward.<\/p>\n

“Just working with H [so far] I can see and I can feel a lot of different things I need to work on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited and I\u2019m a good bit away from my next fight and I\u2019m already being pushed hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welterweight champion Lewis Crocker has opened up on his decision to leave Billy Nelson just months after they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":{"0":"post-363799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-schedule","18":"tag-boxing-videos","19":"tag-boxing-results","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-unitedkingdom","37":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}