BELFAST – “The stars aligned for me,” said an emotional and jubilant Lewis Crocker at the post-fight press conference, having dropped Paddy Donovan twice and outscored him to win a split decision at Windsor Park.
About a mile from his home on Sandy Row, Crocker won the vacant IBF welterweight title and said: “I knew this was my moment, and then hearing ‘And the new’, and then the pause, and then you’re waiting there, and he says ‘Belfast’. That was it, life’s peak – it doesn’t ever get any better than that moment.”
Donovan had dominated their first fight in March, but this time no one was able to press an advantage. Crocker was cagey and thoughtful, and didn’t give Donovan the openings he needed to get going.
“I knew that I had to box,” Crocker added. “And I was giving him too much of an easy target last time, and I knew that would give him a false sense of security, which it did. I clipped him with the first one, and I dropped him [in round three], and I knew that I could land something big, and I did in the fifth [putting Donovan over again], and I had a couple of 10-8 rounds so I knew it put some pressure on him.”
Crocker told himself to stick to what he was doing – to be disciplined and patient and not allow Donovan to enter his flow.
“I knew I was countering him, and I was hurting him, and the main thing was, I wasn’t getting hit with anything – everything was smart, and it just takes one punch to change everything,” the 28-year-old said. “I thought tonight couldn’t be any better, and nobody gave me a chance in that fight – absolutely nobody. I was a massive underdog, and got slated the whole way up to the second fight.”
But Crocker embraced the underdog role wholeheartedly.
“I was way more relaxed – you could see, once I hurt him, once he knew, he got dropped, and maybe, [Donovan was thinking], ‘I talked all this shit about him, and everything’, and I had him on the back foot, and whatnot,” Crocker explained. “So it was incredible, and to have Belfast fans there, to hear ‘and the new’, in Belfast, like, my family and friends, it was a life-changing moment.
“I knew that I was a much better fighter than I showed [in the first fight] and I knew that he was going to think I was the same fighter from last time around and I knew from the get-go there, instantly, once he missed that first shot, I was like, ‘I’ve got my distance here, I’m not giving him an easy target’.”
“Once I hit him [with the knockdown shot in the fifth], I was waiting for the clicker or something, to see how much time’s left, but I know Paddy has a great chin because I remember catching him in the first fight, and he was still there, but tonight I just thought I was a lot sharper. Paddy’s a great counter-puncher, so maybe I should have let the hands go more, but, it’s something to back on, and – I don’t know. I’m a much better fighter as well than what I even showed tonight. I’m 28. I’ve had 22 fights now but I’ve so much more improvement than I showed you. Like, the difference between that fight and this fight tonight, like, I’m only going to get better.”
Did he think Donovan would get up after the big knockdown?
“I was hoping he wouldn’t, aye!” he responded. “But, yeah, like, once he got dropped in, I seen he was stumbling, and, yeah, great shot. The first knockdown, I knew I clipped him, and then the second, it was a lovely shot.”
Crocker grew in confidence was not nervous and “slept like a baby” the night before, but he did appreciate it was a close fight.
“I knew that with two knockdowns – and I was guaranteed three rounds anyway – so in my head, I thought about it, but you don't know in fights, you know what I mean? You don't know, and, so when you hear split decision and then you hear the result…”
The Belfast boxer said he’d always thought one opportunity would change his life.
“I always say this – the only thing that got me through [tough times] was never give up on the dream. I always pictured it would just take one opportunity to change your life, and I just knew everything was meant to be and Eddie [Hearn] and Matchroom gave me that opportunity, and got me in great fights, and showed me the support, and got Belfast behind me, and did everything for me, and I’m a world champion, champion of the world.”
Now it is Crocker who is in the driving seat for big fights. Beforehand it was widely understood that he would be the one to bring big-time boxing back to Belfast and, in the immediate aftermath, he said he would like to face Conor Benn.
“I seen there was articles, saying about Benn getting the winner of me and Paddy, but I’ve seen 99 per cent of them folks were talking about Paddy and Benn,” he said. “Nobody was expecting me to get to say about Benn, so, I just think that domestically, it’s a huge fight, and one of them where it’s going to be entertaining from the get-go.
“People always mentioned his name, I was like, ‘There’s no point in me even saying anything, because I have no bargaining chip’. It’s fine, it's nothing to gain [for Benn], as such, you know what I mean, but now I’m champion… world champion now, as I can say, I’ve changed my life forever – no matter what happens in my life, I’ll always go down as a world champion, do you know what I mean? And that’s something that nobody could ever take away from me.”
