Lewis Crocker, IBF welterweight champion, has looked at the odds and he knows he\u2019s not the favorite to successfully make the first defense of his title.<\/p>\n
The Irishman is in Australia where, on Wednesday, he boxes Liam Paro in an intriguing fight at Pat Rafter Arena in Tennyson, Queensland.<\/p>\n
Crocker won the vacant belt in an all-Irish clash with Paddy Donovan in Windsor Park, Belfast, last September, and Paro\u2019s promoter, No Limit, won the purse bids so Crocker\u2019s first fight as the champion heads Down Under.<\/p>\n
Crocker has been in Australia for two weeks, putting the final touches on his preparations.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiam Paro\u2019s a great fighter,\u201d Crocker said. \u201cI remember when he first came on my radar was when he won the world title at light-welter, because I just remember seeing the build-up and I was actually rooting for him because he was such a big underdog and that guy [Subriel Matias] had like, all those fights with knockouts, but I never, never looked on him as [someone] I\u2019m going to be fighting him and stuff. Liam\u2019s a great operator and he\u2019ll not want to let his fans down. I\u2019m expecting a tough test.
Southpaw Paro has been dubbed \u201cThe Croc Hunter\u201d in the build-up, a nod to both his Aussie heritage and Crocker\u2019s nickname \u201cThe Croc.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the 29-year-old champion has heard it all before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been 10 years a pro now, [Paro] would be about the sixth or seventh person to be called a \u2018Croc Hunter\u2019 during my career,\u201d he sighed. \u201cIt is what it is. It\u2019s funny because it\u2019s Australia as well; whatever builds a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a bout that Crocker knows will not be easy.<\/p>\n
He has plenty of respect for the challenger in what represents his first fight under new trainer \u201cH,\u201d Huzaifah Iqbal having split from Scottish coach Billy Nelson after winning the title.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt there was certain stuff that maybe I could be better at, and the way I\u2019m right now, it\u2019s obviously all worked out,\u201d Crocker, 22-0 (11 KOs), said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to showing my new and improved self. I know much more people from the new gym, as well. Kieran Molloy, who, when we were junior and youths, we used to share a room for Ireland, like, representing and stuff. I live with him now, so a lot more familiar faces will be in the gym, and obviously, Josh Kelly’s in the gym, Harlem Eubank, Kurt Walker and stuff. So, all the boys are training together, so it’s good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy setup in Scotland was great, as well. I just thought maybe it was too comfortable at stage and stuff, and I really pushed myself this camp, and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crocker said that \u201cH\u201d has \u201cbeen on the ball.\u201d He chronicles Crocker\u2019s training metrics closely and adapts sessions accordingly.<\/p>\n
Crocker\u2019s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has said he\u2019s hoping Crocker performs a \u201csmash and grab\u201d in Australia and returns with the belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiam\u2019s a great fighter, an all-around great fighter, so ideally that would be the way to do it,\u201d said Crocker. \u201cBut we\u2019re prepared for every situation and we\u2019ve worked hard over camp and I\u2019ll put on the best performance of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Crocker, IBF welterweight champion, has looked at the odds and he knows he\u2019s not the favorite to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,10078,18591,21968,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-653023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-lewis-crocker","tag-liam-paro","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653023","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=653023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}