Ireland’s Carl Frampton, in conversation with Tris Dixon, looks ahead to the Belfast rematch between Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan at Windsor Park, where they will fight before 20,000 fans for the vacant IBF welterweight title. Crocker won their first fight in March, when Donovan was disqualified for a punch after the bell. The Limerick man had been penalized twice before then. They meet again on Saturday, and Frampton will be ringside.
“I think the rematch will have to be different if Lewis Crocker has any chance of winning,” Carl Frampton said.
“It was so one-sided up until the disqualification. I have a theory, and I haven’t asked anyone about this, but I think that seeing Paddy box in the Ulster Hall a few fights before he fought Lewis, it was an eight-round fight, and he got a little bit tired around round five or six, and I think he only got it on short notice maybe. And I think that Crocker – maybe I’m speaking out of turn here – but I think Crocker and Billy Nelson probably thought, ‘We’ll walk forward, keep our hands high, and he will fade in the second half’.
“But that wasn’t the case. So, I know Lewis is a lot better than that last performance that we’ve seen, where I think he would admit to himself that he was really under par, but it’s going to be a tough ask just because it was so one-sided, and I think Paddy will be going to this fight full of confidence.
“I think Crocker’s output needs to be higher. I mean, you get away with it in the amateurs when you walk forward with your arms high and you take shots on the gloves, but as a pro, they get through. The gloves are smaller and they still get through.
“And Lewis has this kind of defense where his hands are open when they’re off. So when he’s blocked a shot, it’s leather and tape just doing damage to your own face. So I think the output needs to be higher, and he needs to move his head more as well – a lot more – and put it on Paddy a bit.
“So he needs to gamble in a sense, but that could suit Paddy, who’s a very tactically astute boxer, moves very well, counter-punches really well, punches hard as well.
“I knew Paddy was very, very good.
“I think he’s a top-quality fighter. I think that – I don’t want to contradict myself here – but I think that because of how Lewis boxed, it made him maybe even look better because it was so one-sided. And I think going into the fight, it was pretty even according to the bookies – it made them very even anyway, but Paddy dominated from start to finish.
“Certainly he’s a better boxer on the back foot, but Lewis kind of made things easy for him as well. But I do think that Paddy Donovan is a special talent.
“I think it’s probably the fighter in [Crocker] that wants the rematch.
“He has been quite vocal and said that that was the first fight that he wanted. He wanted to right a wrong, so you have to give him credit for that. But he’s a lot better than that last performance, and I’d love to see him win, but it’s pretty hard to make an argument for him, considering how one-sided the first fight was.
“Ireland’s going to have a new world champion at the end of the day, whoever wins, which is good for the island as a whole. I’d love to see it be Crocker, just to bring it back to Belfast, but it’s a difficult task for him. And again, it all goes back to the first fight. It wasn’t even close, really, you know what I mean? It was so comfortable for Paddy in there, and Lewis has to change a lot.
“It will be difficult for it to be Belfast [where Donovan makes his fighting home], but it could easily be Dublin. It could easily be Dublin, and Paddy can do everything. He can box; he can punch; he looks the part as well, and he speaks very well too. I imagine there’s a few modelling jobs lined up for him when he wants to pack in boxing. But he’s got quality in so many different areas, I think.
“[Welterweight’s] not the division it was a few years ago when you had ‘Boots’ [Ennis] in it, and even [Terence] Crawford before him, and Vergil Ortiz, and stuff like that. You know, real, real good quality fighters.
“So it is wide open in a sense. You’ve got Bran Norman – a good fighter. You’ve got [Manny] Pacquiao, who probably should have beat [Mario] Barrios; who should have had the decision.
“But Pacquiao’s an old man, so it’s wide open. Conor Benn’s another big fight, potentially, for the winner. But there’s unification fights, or you could go on a run of a couple of defenses as well, because the division maybe isn’t as strong as it once was.”
