Lewis Crocker calls Windsor Park world title fight 'everything that I have ever wanted' ahead of September rematch with Paddy Donovan
Boxer Lewis Crocker has called walking out at Windsor Park a childhood dream ahead of September’s fight to face Paddy Donovan for the vacant IBF World welterweight title.
The Sandy Row boxer and football fan has already fought at the home of his boyhood club Linfield when he defeated William Warburton on points over six rounds of the undercard seven years ago when Carl Frampton took on Luke Jackson.
Crocker and Donovan fought in the SSE Arena at the start of March but the Limerick fighter was disqualified at the end of the eighth round for hitting his opponent after the bell.
The rematch was set to be a world title eliminator but with Jaron 'Boots' Ennis stepping up a weight division the two will square up for the first-ever world title fight between two Irish boxers.
“It doesn’t get any bigger for the world title, honestly, you dream of it, but realistically do you think it is going to happen?...maybe not but to be here, it's everything I could ever imagine,” said Crocker. “Growing up going to this stadium and seeing all these boys (footballers)...to become someone influential in the area, it's pretty cool.”
Crocker’s win in March stretched his unbeaten record in the professional ranks to 21-0 but he knows he’ll have to approach the rematch differently.
“The last fight I agreed with the decision, but I also agree there should be a rematch, nobody wanted the fight to end like that including myself and I know I’m a lot better fighter that what I am,” he said. “The next day I rang Jamie (Conlon) to get the rematch sorted and they were no other opponents in my mind than Paddy and everything has worked out.
“We were fighting an eliminator originally and now it is for the title, it is everything I have ever dreamed of as a kid, and it is everything that I have ever wanted.
“In the first fight my eye was shut and I was in trouble at that stage but Paddy made the mistake that ultimately he paid for.
“I have to be better...Paddy is a great fighter and he showed that in the last fight and I’ll have to put on the performance of my life to win on the 13th September but there is no better time or place to do it.
“I’m a massive underdog in this fight nobody is expecting me to win, the first fight was 50/50 by the general public so to pull off a win is the stuff of dreams.”